As a requirement of any development plan in Pennsylvania, the state Department of Environmental Resources requires a National Pollutant Discharge System permit.
To get that permit – known by its clumsy acronym NPDES – the developer has to allow inspectors to examine the property under consideration to determine whether stormwater runoff would have a detrimental effect on the environment.
When inspectors visited the 16 or so acres in Hopewell Township that Nikolay Ratajczak and his daughter and business partner, Sofia, hope to develop, one of them suspected wetlands around the creek could be a habitat for bog turtles, an endangered species that has over the past 30 years disappeared from 50 percent of the wetlands it once inhabited.
A survey was conducted, but no bog turtles were found.
Instead, Nikolay said, the inspector pointed out several spindly trees with leaves the size of first baseman mitts bearing massive cream-colored flowers.
He believed they were umbrella magnolias, a rare plant considered to be a special concern by the Pennsylvania Biological Survey. A survey by the state’s forestry department revealed that there were more than 150 of them along the creek.
Nikolay and Sofia were not familiar with umbrella magnolias. Not many people are, and not many people have even seen them. They are very rare in Pennsylvania, according to the state’s Natural Heritage Department.
But they knew two things. “They are super impressive,” Sofia said. And, they said, they wanted to do what they could to protect and preserve them as they built the development that would come to be known as Magnolia Groves.
'A more holistic approach'
Hopewell Township, hugging the Mason-Dixon Line in southern York County, is no stranger to development.
The township, a rural farming community anchored by the borough of Stewartstown, a town of about 2,200, still has wide-open spaces, expanses of prime farmland, forests and wetlands. But in the past few decades, development has encroached on its rural character as Maryland residents came north to escape high property taxes and real estate values.
Stewartstown is surrounded by high-end suburban-style developments that cater to that cohort, many of them carved out of the fertile farmland and rolling hills of southern York County.
It’s a mixed blessing. Natives and farmers bristle at the loss of land to suburban homes and vinyl-clad McMansions. Yet, the township benefits from the expanded tax base, permitting it to more easily perform the duties that enhance the area’s quality of life.
Nikolay and Sofia ventured into this fray, seeking a way to develop housing while balancing it with preserving the qualities that make the area so special.
“We want to be comfortable on either side of the equation,” Nikolay said, standing in tall grass by the bank of Ebaughs Creek. “Sometimes that means compromising. We try to find a balance. You have to be environmentally responsible and financially responsible. You can’t ignore the economics. If you only look at environmental issues, it’s unsustainable economically. If you only look at economics, it’s unsustainable environmentally. We take a more holistic approach.”
He said, “There could be more houses squeezed in here, but we had to look at the balance.”
'A great area'
Nikolay’s career in development can be traced to his heritage.
His mother is Spanish, a native of Majorca, an island off the east coast of Spain in the Mediterranean. A native of California’s Bay Area, he lived in his mother’s homeland between the ages of 11 and 14. “It was typical for family members to develop and hold properties as a source of income and livelihood,” he said.
After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army, serving in the Rangers and part of the Rapid Deployment Force that conducted reconnaissance in Panama in the mid-1980s. He still looks like an Army Ranger, fit with a shaved scalp and a sometimes intense presence.
When he completed his stint in the service, he said, he passed through Baltimore on his way home and fell in love. The city, particularly its architecture, reminded him of Europe. He stayed in Baltimore and pursued a degree in real estate and economic development at the University of Baltimore under the G.I. Bill. After graduating, he sought a masters at Johns Hopkins.
While living in Baltimore, he began investing in real estate by buying a few townhouses. His first development project was carving his own homestead out of three acres in northern Baltimore County, building his own house on one acre-and-a-half lot and subdividing the rest for another home.
He worked with several different developers and did what’s called an "infill" project near Shrewsbury. About 15 years ago or so, he developed the five acres around an existing home into four additional homes, each occupying a one-acre lot. (It’s called an "infill" development because it was built around an existing home.)
He fell in love with southern York County. He and his family spent a lot of time in the area. He recalled that he would bring Sofia to ride the excursion train in New Freedom on Easter, the Easter bunny scaring the bejesus out of Sofia, something that still causes her shivers.
“We love the area,” Nikolay said. “This is a great area.”
He worked on other projects, including the Eitzert Farm development, later named Chapel Crossing.
Sofia joined the family business – Terra Nova Capital – as a partner after graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in environmental studies, also studying anthropology and archeology. (Nikolay remembers driving her and her mother home from the hospital 24 years ago in a Toyota Four-Runner, a car he still drives. It has 297,000 miles on it.)
Nikolay credits his daughter with increasing his interest in balancing preservation with development. “We make a good team,” he said.
The first project the father-daughter did together is Magnolia Groves.
Sanctuary for magnolias
The land bordered by Valley Road seemed perfect.
The house on the property is at the bottom of a steep ravine, festooned with sharp rock outcroppings, with Ebaughs Creek and one of his tributaries forming the border. The ravine tops out to a plateau surrounded by old-growth forest.
The site plan depicts a circular development of duplexes, circling an open area. The area surrounding the development would remain wild, preserving the forested ravine and surrounding area. It is a closed off from through traffic, kind of a large cul-de-sac atop a hill.
Nikolay envisions more than just another suburban-style development. He wants to create a community. He hopes that the area attracts families, where kids can ride bikes without fear of speeding cars and can trick-or-treat on Halloween by visiting neighbors they know.
“When I develop a property,’ Nikolay said, “my test is whether I would want to live there. This development, I could live there.”
The design encompasses the first wild plant sanctuary in York County, only the 19 th in the state, according to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
'The power of nature'
Umbrella magnolias exist in a just a few areas in Pennsylvania.
There are stands of the trees in the Laurel Highlands in southwestern Pennsylvania and some have been cultivated in suburban Philadelphia. Southern York County, according to the state Biological Survey, has one of the denser habitats for the trees, which thrive in wetlands. The magnolias provide habitats for wildlife and are a buffer for pollutants that flow from developed areas and provide an effective filter to reduce toxic chemicals from entering waterways. Only about 25 stands of the trees exist in the state, according to the biological survey.
Besides the environmental benefits, umbrella magnolias are aesthetically pleasing. Their large white flowers give way to a pine-cone-like red fruit. The large leaves provide dappled shade, and when the light hits them at the right angle, they almost appear like sunlight streaming through stained glass.
“The light shining through the leaves, the sound of the brook, to me, it’s beautiful,” Nikolay said. “It is literally the power of nature.”
'The right thing to do'
In July, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced that about five and a half acres of the development, two swaths of land that hug the gentle curves of Ebaughs Creek and one of its tributaries would be designated as a Wild Plant Sanctuary.
DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn was quoted in a press release announcing the designation as saying, “These properties serve as models for other landowners, offering strategies to conserve rare plants as part of their management plans and enhancing the ecology and natural beauty for those who live and work near the sanctuaries.”
The designation does not result in any material benefit for Nikolay. He gets no tax break, grant or subsidy, he said. That wasn’t a factor, he said. “We did it because it was the right thing to do”
The reward for preserving the trees, according to Jason Ryndock, a ecological information specialist with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said they get a "a wooden plaque and a metal sign" to post at the sanctuary. That a developer would pledge to preserve the trees, he said, was unusual. "They were great to work with," he said.
The trees, he said, are unusual and create an almost tropical vibe. "It's unusual to see that in Pennsylvania," he said.
Magnolias are among "so cool," he said. They evolved before bees, he said, pollinated by beetles, attracted to seemingly noxious scent of its flowers, like "rotting flesh," evidence how the trees plants have adapted to survive the 100 million years they have existed on earth, Ryndock said.
"It's really cool," he said.
'Super cool'
Walking along a deer trail along Ebaughs Creek, Nikolay warns, “Look out for the deer droppings.”
The trail appears to be a freeway for deer, given the evidence of their traffic along the narrow run through the forest.
Sofia gazed at the magnolias and said, “They’re super cool.”
Hiking through the woods, Nikolay said, “We need housing, but we have to be able to do that without harming places like this.”
“This place is special.”
Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: By sparing rare magnolia grove, Stewartstown developer sacrifices profit for preservation
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