​Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2026 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, Debbie Town, Cheryl Spaulding, Leslie Edwards, and Lindsey Beacher
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan
• Guests Present: John McHugh and Jim Wylie of Ready for 100 – Clean Energy Goals, Adam Thomas, Tom Parr
• Reorganization
  • Cheryl motioned to re-elect Anne Duzan as chair, seconded by Mike – motioned passed unanimously.
  • Anne nominated Mike as vice-chair, seconded by Lindsey, motioned passed unanimously.
• Public Comment: Adam Thomas and Tom Parr introduced themselves and planned to listen in to the meeting, especially the Sheetz discussion.
• December 9, 2025 Minutes: Approved Unanimously
• New Business:
  • Plan Set Orientation – Tabled
  • Sheetz Conditional Use Review – The group reviewed their comments on the Sheetz Conditional Use rubric. After some discussion on procedure, it was decided that Abbey will draft a summary letter to the Township Manager to be conveyed to the Planning Commission, with the EAC’s questions and comments. Comments will be compiled in a number of areas: Biodiversity, Energy, Land Use, Stormwater, Transportation, Waste Management. Mike motioned to have Abbey summarize the EAC’s comments as discussed, seconded by Debbie, passed unanimously.
  • Mr. McHugh and Mr. Wylie presented to the EAC about the Ready for 100 Clean Energy Goals program.
• Old business:
  • Habitat For Humanity Plan Review – There was some conversation about biodiversity and the requirements for a PNDI and environmental impact assessments going forward. Abbey will ask about the current requirements. After discussing the rubric comments and questions, Anne entertained a motion to have Abbey draft a summary letter to the Township Manager to be conveyed to the Planning Commission, with the EAC’s questions and comments. Comments will be compiled in a number of areas: Biodiversity, Energy, Land Use, Stormwater, Transportation, Waste Management. Debbie motioned to have Abbey summarize the EAC’s comments as discussed, seconded by Cheryl. Motion passed unanimously.
  • Rubric Updates – Tabled
  • Winter Sowing Workshop – EAC members agreed to host a Winter Sowing Workshop for the public on February 7th. Abbey will create a sign up genius and promotional items. Anne suggested using any extra plants to add to the garden around the Lloyd Park Gazebo. Anne created a document in the outreach files for additional event ideas.
• Adjournment – Meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm.

 

Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
December 9, 2026 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, JoEllen McBride, Debbie Town, Cheryl Spaulding, and Lindsey Beacher
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan
• Guests Present: None
• Public Comment: None
• November 11, 2025 Minutes Approved Unanimously
• Old business:
  • January Newsletter Piece – We’re set for the December newsletter and Anne will work on a piece on safe ice melt. Lindsey suggested content about cardboard recycling/repurpose after the holidays. Debbie asked about the success of the Christmas tree composting program – Abbey will get the annual report.
  • Zoning Update Update – Mike attended and reported out on the most recent Zoning Update meeting. Our proposed changes were well-received by the group, with a few notes: we need a better definition and/or a list of “specimen trees”; the wording around tree replacement needs some attention; and the consultant will follow up about requiring an extra 6 inches above the flood plane requirements (as recommended in the Brandywine Flood Study). The plant list created by the group was especially exemplary (kudos to Anne especially). Anne offered to clean up the SOP for how to create the plant list to keep for future updates. Mike noted that the goal is to make all of the changes by the end of December before it’s passed along to the Planning Commission. Once the zoning update is enacted, the township plans to update the SALDO to coordinate the two.
• New Business
  • Development Plan Review – Habitat for Humanity Project. Mike and JoEllen created a terrific rubric to review upcoming projects. Abbey made a Plan Review folder on the OneDrive with individual folders within for each project. Mike suggested we focus on the grading and landscape plans, specifically. He also explained how the rubric was created (using the recommendations from the Sustainability Report) and how to we’ll use it to review plans. Once we’ve run it through the process, we can make changes as needed. The group agreed to split the work with different people focusing on different areas: Biodiversity – Anne, Stormwater – Debbie and Abbey, Land Use – Cheryl and Lindsey, Waste Management – Jo, Energy – Cheryl, Transportation – Mike. Energy. Lindsey suggested clarifying definitions, i.e. “High density.” Lindsey will save a link to the county’s eTools in the plan review folder. Once the rubric is completed and approved by the EAC, Abbey will draw up a review letter to include in the project packets.
  • Mike attended a workshop on winter seed sowing and suggested it would be a good EAC activity.
• Adjournment

 

Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
November 11, 2025 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:08 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, Leslie Edwards, Debra Town, and Lindsey Beacher
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan
• Guests Present: Brett Klukan (Zoning Taskforce Member)
• Public Comment: None
• Minutes Approved – October 14, 2025
• Old business:
  • CCATO Sustainability Award
  • 2026 Meeting Dates – The EAC agreed to continue meeting on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM.
• New Business
  • Newsletter Pieces Update – all members are invited to contribute brief articles to the monthly township newsletter. So far, our monthly contributions have been well-received.
  • Zoning Update Draft – Abbey reported on progress updates and draft language provided in response to EAC feedback from the consultant in charge of the Zoning update. The EAC discussed, at length, various natural resource protection standards, including disturbance allowances for steep slopes, waterways, remaining trees, and others. Notes generated will be sent to Nanci for inclusion in the next draft. The group agreed to continue working on the tree list and email it to Nanci when it’s finished. In the future, we’ll have the ability to update the list in future years as circumstances change (climate change, disease, etc.).
  • Upcoming Parks and Rec Events – Tree Lighting – Abbey confirmed that we’ll be collecting Christmas lights for recycling at the Tree Lighting.
  • Development Plan Reviews – Mike began working on a template to use for development plan reviews. Members agreed that the template will make reviews streamlined and quicker to do.
• Adjournment

 

Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
October 14, 2025 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, JoEllen McBride, Debra Town, and Lindsey Beacher
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan and Don Vymazal
• Guests Present: Brett Klukan (Zoning Taskforce Member)
• Public Comment: None
• Minutes Approved – September 9, 2025
• Old business:
  • Outreach to Boards and Commissions – the EAC has been working on ongoing outreach to other township boards and commissions:
    • Parks and Rec: JoEllen reported on her visit to the Parks and Recreation Board meeting.  
    • Anne attended the Planning Commission meeting and she and Mike reported about the Main Line Health presentation.
  • Newsletter Pieces – The spreadsheet and drafts are in the Outreach folder in OneDrive and any member is welcome to add to either. Anne suggested we present recycling/trash data in terms of number of recycling trucks. The group discussed writing some recycling fact-check content.
  • Upcoming Parks and Rec Events – Halloween Party and Tree Lighting – the group discussed doing recycling collections at events (specifically broken Christmas lights)
• New Business
  • Zoning Update Review – Abbey highlighted some relevant text, specifically the Resource Protection Standards section in the shared PDF. She also created Word documents for each sub-section for people to comment on and edit. Lindsey and Mike added their thoughts to the spreadsheet. Don suggested that the EAC focus on their top priorities rather than focusing more broadly since there’s so much content included in the code. The group extensively discussed the steep slopes section of the code and made some comments. Don described the new Mixed Use Overlay district. The group also discussed potential changes to the landscaping list to reflect plants native to this region and appropriate for the soil while being resistant to climate change impacts. 
• Adjournment

 

Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
September 9, 2025 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held as a hybrid meeting – both via Zoom and in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, JoEllen McBride, Lindsey Beacher, Debra Town, and Leslie Edwards
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan
• Guests Present: None
• Public Comment: None
• Minutes Approved – August 12, 2025 (Motioned by JoEllen McBride, seconded by Mike Irwin) Approved unanimously
• Old business:
  • Outreach to Boards and Commissions – the EAC has been working on ongoing outreach to other township boards and commissions:
    • Golf Committee: Nothing yet, waiting for off-season
    • Zoning Update Taskforce: Abbey spoke to Don on this and he suggested we start by reviewing the draft zoning update before anyone attends a meeting.
    • Planning Commission: Anne attended the most recent Planning Commission agenda. She reported that the meeting agenda included the Main Line Health project. She introduced that commission to the EAC briefly and contributed to a stormwater discussion. Mike (a PC member) mentioned that PC chair Adam Thomas has discussed getting EAC input on upcoming plans, though turnaround time needs to be figured out. Mike offered to report back to the EAC on upcoming projects that come before the PC.
    • Historical Commission: Lindsey reported that she’s attended some HC meetings and spoke in-depth with Commissioner Evans about conducting a forest inventory of the Kings Highway Park site for her thesis. She also may explore potential trail connections between Kings Highway Park and Bondsville Mill park in East Brandywine Township. Currently, she’s working on a base map for her data collection. Mike also attended a meeting and had a good discussion on adaptive reuse and working together to create a significant tree inventory.
    • Municipal Authority: Abbey attended the last MA meeting, but since they’re only in charge of the sewer system, there isn’t a lot in the report that impacts them. The Authority board was very enthusiastic about the report and asked good questions. Abbey explained the I&I program and a bit about how the sewer system works. Water conservation is one area that we can coordinate on.
    • Parks and Rec: Didn’t have a September meeting.
  • Newsletter Pieces – Anne submitted an article for last month’s newsletter on getting started with native plants. She also started a potential topic calendar in the shared drive and drafted some additional content. The newsletter generally goes out the middle of the month. JoEllen offered to edit the drafts. Everyone is welcome to contribute content (and it can be very short!). Debbie suggested a column on “hard to recycle items,” starting with medical waste. Anne suggested inviting expert guest contributors as well. Abbey mentioned that some of these topics would make good video content as well.
  • Community Day Table Recap – Anne, JoEllen, and Lindsey all attended. They gave away water reduction kits and coloring books. A few people did engage with the report QR code. There was a discussion on coming up with more short-form displays for events. JoEllen mentioned that we should add QR codes for the website to anything we hand out at events. We also need to find some eco-friendly candy for next year.
• New Business

Action Items:
            Ordinance Review: Zoning Task Force Draft – Abbey sent out the draft for the group to review. Anne plans to focus her review on the landscaping section and the group discussed including soil types/plant communities. Abbey saved a shared copy in the EAC folder and started highlighting relevant sections, and she will add a copy of the list that’s already been started to the folder. Mike suggested adding the sustainability report recommendations to format our comments on the zoning update. Lindsey mentioned a resource on zoning updates from WeConservePA that she’ll add to the shared drive. Abbey will work on a spreadsheet for this. We should have some of this done by our next meeting.

• Adjournment

 

Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
August 12, 2025 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held as a hybrid meeting – both via Zoom and in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, JoEllen McBride, Lindsey Beacher, Cheryl Spaulding, Debra Town
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan
• Guests Present: Marianne Cattell
• Public Comment: None
• Minutes Approved – June 10, 2025 (July meeting was cancelled due to weather)
• Old business:
  • Housekeeping – Emails, Shared Docs – Abbey checked in with the council members to ensure that everyone was able to access their new township email addresses and the shared drive folder.
  • Outreach to Boards and Commissions
    • Golf Committee – The group decided to hold off on contacting the Golf Committee for now and to meet with the golf course manager in the slow season to see how the EAC can support greening efforts at the golf course. Anne offered to attend their meetings
    • Abbey will invite the Zoning Update Taskforce to an EAC meeting and will send out the draft of their updated zoning to the EAC for review.
    • Anne will attend the next Planning Commission meeting to update them on the EAC and Sustainability Report.
    • Lindsey has been communicating with the Historical Commission and Commissioner Evans about green projects at the Spackman-Davis Farm and other historic properties.
    • Mike, Cheryl, and Abbey will attend the next Municipal Authority meeting to update them about the EAC and Sustainability Report.
    • JoEllen will do outreach to Parks and Rec.
  • Newsletter Pieces – Anne authored a piece for this month’s newsletter and the rest of the group is invited to contribute content whenever they like. We will set up a folder in the shared drive to organize newsletter content and assignments.
• New Business
  • Community Day Table – Since Community Day is in less than a month, we’re going to keep this year’s table fairly minimal. JoEllen and Anne are available to staff the table for part of the day. We discussed creating some overview materials to inform people about the EAC and report. JoEllen offered to work on these. Abbey will get together a suggestion box, for the public to contribute ideas related to sustainability. Abbey will also get a sign made to identify the table and print off a large map of the township where people can mark flooding, traffic, biodiversity etc. concerns.
  • Focus on 3 Action Items – Anne detailed her plan to identify three items from the report to address at each month’s meeting in order to keep things moving along. All agreed that we should focus on ordinances and policies as the most urgent needs. Lindsey started organizing our folders with this in mind. Jo will make a spreadsheet to help facilitate.
  • 2026 Budget Request – Abbey discussed putting together a budget request for 2026. The group agreed that a small budget should be requested for this first year, and to include trash/recycling event containers to help increase recycling at events. Abbey will price this out.
  • Trail Update – Abbey provided a brief update about the Beaver Creek Trail. We’ve secured $250,000 in grant funding from the County for construction of Segment 5 of the trail and are awaiting word from the State about additional funding.
  • Stormwater Facilities Map: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/64b211f98037452c96eb3de9020f6c28 The group looked over the soon-to-be-released stormwater facilities map. They pointed out that a key would be helpful for the public to understand the conditions indicated. Cheryl will post it to her Facebook group when it’s published.

 

• Adjournment

 

Meeting Cancelled

Environmental Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 10, 2025 @ 7pm
 
This meeting was held as a hybrid meeting – both via Zoom and in person at the Township building.

• Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm
• Attendees: Anne Kadar-Duzan, Mike Irwin, JoEllen McBride, Lindsey Beacher, Cheryl Spaulding
• Staff Present: Abbey Swan
• Guests Present: Debra Town
• Public Comment: None
• Minutes Approved – None (First Meeting)
• Old business - None
• New Business
  • Chair Nominations – The group voted 5-0 to nominate Anne Duzan as the first chair of the EAC, with JoEllen as the co-chair. Abbey will take the nomination to the Board of Commissioners, who, under the First Class Township Code, appoint the EAC chair.
  • Conditional Use Review – Abbey briefed the group on the topic of possible EAC review of Conditional Use plans. Similar to existing reviews sometimes done by the Historical Commission, the EAC will be able to review the sustainability-related aspects of a project plan and draft a letter to the Board of Commissioners or the applicant with feedback and recommendations. The group voted 5-0 that they would like to contribute to the approval process. Lindsey suggested using our Sustainability report as a way to organize our review of projects. Mike described the process used by the Planning Commission when drafting a recommendation. Lindsey asked about consistent formatting of our reviews. Abbey will send out PC and HC letters as examples. Debbie has some experience with issuing review letters and suggested that we work on consistency in formatting.
  • Recording Secretary – The group voted 5-0 to appoint Abbey as the recording secretary for the EAC.
  • Debbie pointed out some valuable information on the County’s Planning Commission web page and noted some areas that we can add to our “to do” list. Abbey mentioned that we’ve got an existing relationship with the county’s Sustainability Director that we can expand on.
  • Abbey mentioned an upcoming invitation to the Meadow Park Ribbon Cutting. We also received a PECO Green Region Grant to finish converting the meadow space.
  • After some discussion, it was decided that Abbey would reach out to tech support to set up township email addresses for all of the EAC members. She’ll also set up a shared folder for the group to access and edit.
  • First steps – It was agreed that some of the outreach items would be good to focus our initial efforts on. Everyone offered to help write a standing column on sustainability for the monthly newsletter. We also discussed coordination with other boards and commissions, where appropriate. The group decided to assign liaisons to each other group and schedule a time to attend their meetings with a brief presentation about the EAC and the action items that are relevant to them.
    • JoEllen – Parks and Rec
    • Cheryl/Anne – Planning
    • Mike – Municipal Authority
    • Lindsey/Mike – Historical Commission
    • JoEllen/Mike – Zoning Task Force
  • We briefly discussed a resident who’d like to discuss a plastic bag ban. We’ll invite him to a future meeting.
• Adjournment