Eunice Ju ’15: Built on the 400 acre neighboring DuPont estate, the Toll Brothers’ newest Liseter brand homes – the “Newtown Square Collection” in the making – has opened right down the road. Located at Goshen Road and Route 252, Liseter may have major impacts on the Episcopal Academy community.
Toll Brothers is a nationwide home construction and design company that has been acknowledged as the 2012 Builder of the Year by Professional Builder magazine. Newtown Township Manager Mike Trio stated that the property, now owned by the Rouse Group, “has partnered up with [the Toll Brothers]… to construct Ashford” which was renamed Liseter after the property’s original name under the DuPonts. According to the Toll Brothers’ vice president,Brian Thierrin, “Liseter is the only master-planned community in the area with a rich history.” The houses promised will be part of their “newest line of garden carriage homes, providing a unique lifestyle that focuses on community…and beautiful landscapes.”
The Toll Brothers have highlighted the community aspect of their newest collection as well as the “hundreds of acres of lush, open landscape” it will maintain –appropriately fitting the theme of Episcopal’s campus and the general location. They have also mentioned their attention to reducing their environmental impact by installing such features as “more efficient gas furnaces that use less energy.”
Last May, Scholium published an article that Newtown supervisors had approved a plan for Episcopal to connect its sewer force main to pump station in the Liseter developments. Currently, Mark Notaro, Director of Facilities and Operations, said “We’re about to begin infiltration testing at the proposed pump station location for our sewer connection.”
“Having just spoken with the project manager from Toll Brothers, they are proceeding with their pump station and about to begin taking their line out onto 252,” said Notaro. “We have a very productive relationship with Toll Brothers and are working closely to coordinate the tie-in of our system with theirs.”
Liseter may be already impacting the EA community before its completion, through increased allergies last spring, around the beginning of the construction. Many students felt an impact potentially caused by the construction in the form of amplified allergies and asthma symptoms. Anne Ravreby, school nurse, holds an anecdotal theory that the construction, which occurred in open field, could have heightened allergic reactions.
“When the plowing was occurring, there was a lot of allergens in the air,” said Ravreby.
“I saw an increase of complaints of allergy symptoms… when they started bulldozing over there. And it will settle down once that stops and they have things planted.” Ravreby emphasized that this theory was based on her years of nursing experience, not on scientific proof.
In addition to potential allergens, a major consequence of the Liseter developments may be on Episcopal’s Admissions. Rachel Tilney, Director of Admission and Enrollment, said, “This will likely bring more families to the area, and as we are a very close school option, this could be very good for admissions and for EA.” Moreover, Notaro said, “This may also bring families to the area that could potentially choose to apply to EA who were not on our radar previously.” Liseter may affect Episcopal in another way as well, as a potentially formidable traffic neighbor. Notaro noted, “Project managers from Toll Brothers…will try to conduct much of the work on getting their force main down 252 and into a manhole on the other side of Route 3 during evening hours.” In addition, Notaro said, “Once the Liseter development is complete, we do anticipate that the traffic will increase on 252 with the addition of [more than] 440 households to the area.”