Chester County developer Eli Kahn envisions bringing a new Main Street attraction to Devon, but some residents want him to take a hike.

In the making is a five-story upscale apartment complex for 135 units as well as retail shops and restaurants like Anthropologie and Vetri establishments on what used to be the six-acre Waterloo Gardens next to Route 30 and near the Devon Train Station and the Devon Horse Show, according to a 6abc news report.

But what Eli Kahn imagines will bring people together could, in others’ minds, wreak havoc on the community.

“It’s completely out of character with the Devon community,” attorney Joe Kohn said in the article. “… It’s not anything welcome, not anything welcoming to a town and certainly not a town center.”

Most controversial is the 60-foot-high apartment facade facing Devon Boulevard and neighbors’ fears of dramatic traffic congestion and a deterioration of quality of life.

Eli Kahn, who planned for secured underground parking and cited positive results from a similar project in Berwyn, disagreed.

“I’d ask people to have an open mind in the sense that this is a far better alternative to other things that are permitted in the zoning code,” he noted.

The project would require zoning changes and is likely coming to the Easttown Board of Supervisors in March, the article explained.

Read more and watch both sides share their view of what could become Devon’s Main Street in an article and video on 6abc here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of other Eli Kahn developments here.