The Colmar business hoping to develop a town center at the former location of the New Hanover Airport, and nine property owners, have filed a civil lawsuit against the township, the board of supervisors individually and collectively, along with its lead administrator, the municipality's sewer authority, two engineering firms, three members of the planning commission and a former supervisor. Citing an alleged racial bias, it claims that the defendants have conspired to violate the plaintiffs' 14th Amendment rights to develop their properties.

            The federal lawsuit, filed March 5 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleges "that the defendants' actions are motivated by troubling racial bias to exclude minorities" from residing in the township. It claims that the defendants have taken "extreme measures…to shut down development at all costs."

            In the lawsuit, R.P. Wynstone, L.P, and a collection of property owners claim the defendants – through a years-long campaign of hindrance and delay – have disrupted development and violated the landowners' property rights by reviewing development applications in bad faith, passing restrictive ordinances designed to make development commercially unfeasible, and even outright ignoring a presiding judge's directive to hold off on deciding on the application, pending litigation.

            The plaintiffs – who have requested a jury trial – claim to have sustained damages in excess of $150 million, according to the text of the suit, filed by a Philadelphia law firm.

            The defendants include New Hanover Township Authority, Board of Supervisors of New Hanover Township, Manager Jamie Gwynn, Thomas Miskiewicz, chair of the township's sewer authority, former supervisor Charles Garner; planning commission members Russel Oister, Susan Smith and William Moyer; Knight Engineering Inc. and Daniel Gray, the township's appointed engineer, Cedarville Engineering Group, LLC, the former engineering firm, and Robert Flinchbaugh, who previously served the municipality as its appointed engineer.

            According to the legal document, the defendants' "extreme measures are motivated by unconscionable and unconstitutional income discrimination and racial bias, designed to stop the construction of new affordable housing that in turn increases housing density and attracts new residents to the Township, and to prevent any increase in the population of racial minorities in New Hanover Township, which is currently 95 percent white."

            It identifies the appointment of Moyer – a former municipal police officer accused of using racist language – to the planning commission two years ago as intent to exclude minorities and shut down development at all costs.

            The proposed Wynstone Development comprises residential dwelling units of various types including single-family detached dwellings, village houses, twins, atrium houses, townhouses, and mixed-use, multifamily office buildings; flex retail buildings; restaurants; a clubhouse; and a supermarket, along with associated parking, roadways, landscaping, lighting, and stormwater management facilities.

            According to the document -- signed by Kyle Garabedian, with the firm Kang Haggerty, LLC – the defendants acted to prevent the landowners "from completing medium and/or high density residential and commercial developments by arbitrarily and inconsistently applying ordinances in order to drive up cost of development and to ultimately deny land development, denying protections afforded by the Municipal Planning Commission to deny previously approved land development application and arbitrarily and irrationally enacting ordinances that unreasonably increase water quantity requirements for sump pump in a way that makes constructing new homes economically unfeasible."

           R.P. Wynstone acquired the plan to develop the 200-acre property, near the intersection of Swamp Pike and North Charlotte Street, between 2011 and 2012 through bankruptcy court. A previous developer submitted the initial subdivision and land development phasing plans on July 13, 2005. The township granted preliminary land development approval on October 22, 2007, according to the 57-page court document.

            In 2007, New Hanover's supervisors granted preliminary approval and 19 waiver requests from the township's subdivision and land development ordinances for the construction of approximately 379,220 square feet of commercial/office space and 761 residential units. That includes 141 detached dwelling units, 303 atrium homes, 139 townhouses and 178 units as multiplex dwellings.

           Most recently, the developer submitted a revised preliminary plan application that calls for 634 residential units – 183 single-family, 437 townhouses/twins, 13 multifamily and one existing detached unit. The August 23, 2023 submission proposes subdividing 195 acres into 295,700 square feet of commercial space – 265,000 for general commercial and 30,700 of office space – on the property, according to information posted on the township's website.