Chesterbrook's Most-Asked-About Fence Is Finally Coming Down

If you have driven Chase Road in the last few years, you know the fence. Chain-link, sagging in spots, wrapped around four tennis courts and six pickleball courts nobody has played on since before most current Chesterbrook kids were born. The story locals settled on was that the lot was headed for townhomes. That story was wrong. What is actually going up behind that fence is almost exactly what was already there, just fixed. The interesting part is not what the township decided to build. It is why the repair bill kept climbing on a project that never expanded in scope.

Eight Years Behind a Chain-Link Fence

The property started as the Picket Post Swim & Racquet Club, a private pool and tennis facility on Chase Road that struggled financially and eventually stopped being able to maintain itself. Developer Dave Ludin, through Green Bridge Development and an entity called Finery LLC, bought the 4.8-acre site in 2018 for $1.2 million with a different plan in mind: bulldoze the pool, clubhouse, and courts, and build an upscale townhome village.

The site was zoned rural conservation, which does not permit multi-family housing, and Tredyffrin Township denied the rezoning. Ludin appealed to Chester County Court, and while that case sat unresolved, the circa-1890 barn on the property was torn down in late 2023. For Chesterbrook residents who had watched the barn standing since before the club itself existed, that demolition was the moment the lot stopped feeling like a stalled project and started feeling like an actual eyesore. Metal fencing went up around the degrading pool deck and courts, and it stayed there for years.

The Township Chooses Eminent Domain

In early 2025, with the rezoning appeal still pending in court, Tredyffrin supervisors moved to acquire the property outright through eminent domain, paying the developer fair market value rather than waiting for a judge to decide the zoning fight. Township officials called it a historic step, noting the township's solicitor believed the last comparable use of eminent domain was roughly 60 years earlier, for a sewer line.

The decision split the board. One supervisor, weighing whether the township should spend park money in Chesterbrook when nearby Wilson Farm Park already covers 90 acres, put the tension plainly:

"Do we have a couple million dollars burning a hole in our pocket for another park when Chesterbrook is already very well served with Wilson Park?"

Supervisor David Miller, who had led the original 2019 opposition to the townhome rezoning as president of the Chesterbrook Civic Association, countered that roughly 20 percent of township residents live within walking distance of the Chase Road site. Ludin, for his part, argued the opposite geography problem: that residents from the far side of the township, near Radnor, would effectively be subsidizing a small park most of them would never use.

The acquisition itself cost the township about $625,000. That was only the beginning of the number.

Why the Repair Bill Kept Climbing

Here is the detail most residents driving past the fence never registered: the township was not building a new recreation facility from scratch. The site already had six pickleball courts and four tennis courts sitting behind that fencing, unused and untouched since the club shut down. The plan on the table was never to invent new amenities. It was to rehab what was already sitting there.

That distinction matters, because it means the budget escalation was not a story about a project growing bigger. It was a story about a project turning out to be in worse shape than anyone assumed from the road.

Supervisor Miller attributed the jump largely to the courts themselves: their condition, once crews got past the fence, was "not what we expected," requiring a full rebuild rather than a resurfacing. That is the actual mechanism behind the sticker shock residents have been reacting to at recent meetings. The scope on paper barely moved. The pavement underneath it did not hold up the way anyone hoped.

What's Actually Going In, and When

As currently planned, the finished site will have the same four tennis courts and six pickleball courts the old swim club ran, plus a pavilion, a grassy area for community use, and a new bathroom and storage barn. A basketball half-court has been discussed but is tabled for now. The board is also weighing a footpath and bridge connecting the site directly to Wilson Farm Park next door, though that piece would come with its own additional cost and has not been finalized.

Township officials said in late May that the restoration is expected to wrap up by the end of 2026. Construction was underway as of late July, and reporting from early August confirmed the project was still active, with supervisors accelerating parts of the timeline even as the price tag drew pushback at public meetings.

The Short Walk That's About to Get Shorter

The reason the footbridge idea keeps coming up is that Wilson Farm Park is already the center of gravity for Chesterbrook's outdoor calendar. The 90-acre park hosts the township's Thursday evening Summer Concert Series each year, with 2026's lineup running local acts from June through early September, plus the Fourth of July fireworks show with music from the Chester County Concert Band. Community Day returns to Wilson Farm Park on October 3, 2026, with vendors and food trucks for an afternoon that typically draws a strong turnout across the township.

If the courts and pathway both land as planned, the Chase Road site stops being a fenced-off gap between neighborhoods and becomes the missing extension of a park loop residents already use every week. A blanket spot at a Thursday concert and a Tuesday-night pickleball match could end up a five-minute walk apart instead of two separate car trips.

For now, the fence is still up in places, but for the first time in years, there is a reason to actually watch what happens behind it.

If you're curious about what's happening more broadly across Tredyffrin Township real estate, or want a local read on how projects like this tend to shape a block over time, Ainlay Dixon is always glad to talk through what she's seeing on the ground.