Category: Pennsylvania News

In an effort to “drastically” cut down on short-term rentals like Airbnbs, Kennett Square council passed an ordinance Monday capping the number of active units and restricting where they’re able to pop up.

Council voted unanimously to update its ordinance, allowing for a maximum of 20 short-term rentals, and prohibiting single-family homes from turning into short-term rentals as their primary use.

The decision comes after the borough has seen soaring population growth in recent years — an increase of 16% since 2020 — but as housing has become increasingly limited.

Residents had decried several homes getting snapped up, only to be turned into full-time short-term rentals. The borough’s planning commission took up the issue again this year, after a first foray in 2025 didn’t go far enough, officials said previously.

Under the new short-term rental ordinance, the existing units — roughly 22 — will be grandfathered in. But if people sell, move, or don’t maintain rental registration, that status is gone. Future rentals will only be allowed in accessory units — like garages, or guest houses — and the number of available units won’t be able to exceed 20. The property must be owner-occupied during the rental period. Pre-existing short-term rentals will lose their grandfathering status if they don’t maintain rental registration.

“The net effect of this is to actually drastically reduce the potential number of short-term rentals,” council president Bob Norris said. “But it actually reduces the possibility and the probability of having more and more, especially in single-family homes, which we heard loud and clear was a major issue.”

In Chester County, which saw some of the highest population growth in Pennsylvania between 2020 and 2024, the demand for housing is outpacing supply. Fewer single-family detached homes were built in 2024 than in the last several years, according to the county’s planning commission, and fewer new units were being constructed this decade compared with last.

Meanwhile, cost is going up. In 2024, the median sales price hit $525,000 — the highest in the county’s history. That year, 331 homes sold for under $250,000, a decrease from 462 units in 2023, according to the commission. In 2025, 315 homes were sold in that range, making up just 5.3% of all sales.

Kennett Square officials have viewed cutting down on the short-term rentals as one way to address housing availability.

Kennett Square isn’t the only one to grapple with balancing meeting the needs of tourism with the desires of residents. West Chester similarly capped its short-term rentals at 20, and contained them to its town center. It sent cease-and-desist letters to those that weren’t in that radius, officials said previously. But in Phoenixville, short-term rentals have been meeting a need not otherwise addressed by the borough’s singular boutique hotel.

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

Ambitions to turn a former industrial site in Kennett Square into a residential development inched closer to reality Monday — but residents still have concerns about the land’s safety after decades of contamination.

Council voted 5-2 to advertise a change that would allow for housing and business development at the former National Vulcanized Fiber site, a long-vacant 22-acre industrial plant that ultimately contaminated the land with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Initial attempts to allow for redevelopment of the site stalled earlier this year, when a vote to advertise the amendment failed to garner enough support due to a vacancy and an absence on the council.

But a revised ordinance received enough positive votes this week to be posted publicly ahead of a hearing on changing the zoning. It is an early step to possibly develop one of the last untouched pieces of Kennett Square into a mix of townhomes, apartments, and single-family attached dwellings. Under the ordinance, 15% of the units must qualify as affordable housing — with compliance restrictions, financial guarantees, and penalties if the developer does not comply — coming at a time when growth has soared in the borough but housing has become harder to come by.

That vision, however, has been staunchly opposed by some residents, who argue that the site is unsafe for housing and have raised concerns repeatedly about contamination cleanup and whether construction could harm the health of the surrounding neighborhoods. Federal and state agencies still need to OK the cleanup before construction could begin.

“It’s pretty clear repeatedly that the community … doesn’t want this big development to come in there,” resident Holly Peters said. “I guess what I don’t understand, and I would like an answer to, is why this continues to move forward. Like, what is the urgency to push this ordinance through? I mean, why don’t we just wait?”

How did we get here?

The site has been the subject of ongoing cleanup for roughly 40 years. NVF folded in 2007, and the property was acquired by developer Rockhopper LLC two years later, with the ambitions of turning it into housing. Officials have said that there had not been a great deal of other interest in redevelopment.

In April, the borough planning commission had recommended an ordinance amendment that would have allowed for a mixture of affordable and market-rate residential development on the site. The ordinance set parameters around multifamily use, density standards, and affordable housing stock.

In recent months, NVF has once more become a topic at council meetings, with the planning commission seeking guidance on how to move forward after the stalled recommendation.

A straw poll in June showed that a majority of the board — which consists mostly of new members — favored redevelopment of the site as residential or mixed commercial use.

In July, council members asked the planning commission to consider adding mixed-use development in the amended ordinance, which would allow retail, restaurants without drive-throughs, business offices, medical clinics, day spas and salons, and personal services.

That got a tepid reception from Austin Coleman, a representative from the developer, in July, who told the council “we do feel strongly that it’s a residential site, and it’s a great opportunity to provide affordable housing, as well as attainable housing.”

Ultimately, the planning commission included the commercial element in the revised ordinance. Allowing for such development does not mandate that it happen, however.

Borough officials have seen this as an opportunity to add affordable housing stock for residents, in an increasingly expensive county and municipality. Kennett Square has seen an explosion of growth recently, with its population rising 16% in the last five years. But with it has come a squeeze, as people are getting increasingly priced out of what limited housing is available.

What comes next?

These are still early days. The borough will now advertise adding housing and business use alongside the industrial designation. It will then go to county leadership; after that review, it returns to the council for a public hearing. If the proposed ordinance is later approved, with the additional uses for the site, it would eventually open the door for the developer to submit an application to redevelop the parcel into housing. The process could take 18 to 36 months, officials have said.

But before the developer could think of breaking ground, the cleanup efforts on the site must pass muster from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

For decades, the site has undergone remediation and cleanup efforts, overseen by the EPA. The agency is currently accepting public comments until Aug. 28 on its intention to approve a final cleanup application for the site.

Residents have long held concerns that the land is unsuitable for housing, and have worried that the cleanup has not gone far enough.

“I think you’re signing a death certificate for people. Unless you get the EPA to come in and strongly suggest that the property’s OK to build on, nothing should be touched,” resident Mark Thompson said.

Council member Michael Bertrando, who has said he would like to keep the site industrial, cast one of the dissenting votes, alongside council member Juan Tafolla.

“Not one resident who got up at that microphone has said that they are for this project,” Bertrando said. “I mean, yes, this is an advertisement, but why are we doing this before we have any proof that the site is cleaned, it’s remediated, and the EPA hasn’t given us their report yet?”

But for other council members, allowing for development of the long-languishing site would ensure it was actually cleaned up.

“I’m not looking to build something that’s going to create more problems or have issues or people getting sick,” council member Amy Reigel said. “I do want that property to be developed because it’s dirty. Like if we don’t clean it up, if we don’t keep moving forward, it’s going to stay there because we don’t own the property.”

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.