Open letter to Churchill Borough Residents

 Regarding the Churchill Creek Project Land Development

ADDENDUM: March 12, 2021

Hillwood has returned to its original plan and documents submitted to the borough last spring with a 630,000 sf footprint, but it still exactly the same in all other aspects.  So rather than the entire Monroeville mall, it drops the movie theater.  Or to have another comparison, it is still larger than the entire Parkway East in Wilkins, and a single building higher than all those separated  buildings.  You will find other bits of useful information in the supplemental articles being published on this site.  You will find the latest Hillwood PowerPoint and comments outlining some of the misleading information being presented to the public.  You can explore it in detail to verify for yourself the misinformation being disseminated about this project.   The consequences will be left to you and the borough long after Hillwood sells the property and moves on.

January 27, 2021

By Murray Bilby
2424 Churchill Road

First, I recommend that all residents go to the borough web site and become familiar with all the useful information available. This is your community, you decided to invest a substantial sum in purchasing and maintaining your residence. If you want to keep the ambiance that first brought you here, you must take action. Read about what is going on in the community or go to the municipal building meetings. Much of the support material related to what follows can be found there. But you need to take the initiative to read and understand it.

Photos have been reduced to minimize the length of this document. Click on any photo or illustration to expand for easier viewing. Expand by putting the cursor in the lower right corner to drag an arrow for expanding – if viewed in a Word document.

You, as a resident of Churchill Borough, should decide what is most important to you and your family. Then develop expertise on those one or two issues and convey your thoughts to the Planning Commission and Borough Council members. Keep Mayor Paul G. Gamrat and Borough Manager Alex Graziani, Borough Manager informed. Email addresses can be found on the borough site: http://www.churchillborough.com/.

There is also a tab above for all of the contact information you will need.

There is no single source of all the information, so there will certainly be areas yet to discuss and consider. The more involved I became in this project, and the more I learned, the initial ideas and assumptions had to be modified as the details became clearer. Do not allow any single statement or fact to distract you from observing the big picture.

This project is moving at a high velocity so time is short in order to act. This proposal almost makes the fracking proposal seem like a good deal.

On the Borough’s home page, you’ll find easy-to-understand links to borough meeting notes. You also have the option to see a video of who is discussing what at borough meetings.

Second, this is an alert with questions on the project and how it is being ushered through the process with incomplete and misleading data.

Consequently, I hope that individuals will identify areas of personal interest and explore them in more depth.

Don’t try to imagine what is taking place. And don’t assume anything. Verify everything and get the facts.

Look at the Westinghouse hill from all angles – as it is today and as it will be if this project goes through. Consider old Beulah Road. Eliminate the trees that hide the buildings – they will be gone. Triple the height of the building. Picture it closer to within 100 feet of Beulah. Picture the 50-foot retaining wall. What do you see? Imagine yourself driving north on Beulah to get on the westbound ramp. Imagine coming off of 22 to the top of the hill, or the parkway west exit. Think about walking into your back yard at night and trying to see the stars.

At the end of this document, you will also find many links to outside sources relevant to distribution centers and their development with comments from local municipalities. You should compare those comments and complaints with the current situation.

Please read more here: https://www.churchillfuture.com/letter-2/