The Chadds Ford Zoning Hearing Board on July 15 denied a requested use variance for Rocco D’Antonio to continue with grading and fill plans for steep slope relief.
According to the township, he was operating a commercial fill/dump operation in a residential area, a violation of township code.
D’Antonio denied the characterization of a “commercial” operation and argued that his property at 1281 Baltimore Pike, which is in the R-2 zoning district, is not fit for residential use and that no one is willing to buy the property.
“R-2 is impossible at this site,” he said during the hearing.
He requested the variance as well as a zoning change from R-2 to LI, or Light Industrial. Neighboring properties to the east are LI, but those to the north and west are R-2 residential.
Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Bob Reardon told the applicant that only the Board of Supervisors may change the zoning, and that the ZHB has no authority to do so. He also told D’Antonio that he would have to prove some hardship for a variance.
According to Reardon and the two other members of the board hearing the request, D’Antonio failed to make his case.
Alternate Amanda Konyk — filling in for Paul Koch, who recused himself from the hearing because he’s D’Antonio’s neighbor — and board member Lisa Chismire agreed with Reardon that D’Antonio failed to prove any hardship on his part that would have them approve a use variance.
Konyk said D’Antonio had no more of a hardship now than when he first bought the property, but that filling in the slopes could cause a hardship for neighbors.
“I’m not seeing a variance,” Konyk said.
Chismire concurred, saying the applicant’s original real estate agent misled him and that the current activity is already interfering with neighbors’ enjoying their property.
Reardon told D’Antonio, “You don’t meet the qualifications for a variance, and we can’t change zoning…There should be no fill operation going forward.”
D’Antonio spent the bulk of his testimony reviewing his history with the property, which he bought in 1984 for $55,000. He said his real estate agent told him it could be a good commercial property. It was, and is, zoned for residential.
He tried to sell the property several times over the years, he said, but found no takers because of the R-2 zoning, the presence of steep slopes, and because it abuts Route 1.
Former township engineer Joe Mastronardo issued a permit in 2011 that allowed D’Antonio to use clean fill to level off portions of the property.
D’Antonio testified the township had no ordinances at the time that prohibited filling a property with steep slopes, “as long as no subdivision or land use were involved.”
However, he said, communications began deteriorating. An excessive number of inspections — 31 during the winter months when there was no work going on – occurred, he said. He also felt the fees for those inspections were too high.
While disputing the fees, a second permit was being approved, but never officially issued because he hadn’t paid the inspection fees.
He settled by paying $2,800, he said, but still never received the second permit. In the interim, the original permit expired, but the fill work continued and D’Antonio and his son, Michael, started an excavation business in 2012, with machinery kept at the property.
He said he never heard anything from the township for 22 months regarding violations and that plans for the fill operation had been misplaced. He attributed the communication breakdown to personnel changes in the township. He specifically referred to the fact that he had dealt with three different township managers, three different building inspectors, and two different township engineers.
Under questioning by township solicitor Hugh Donaghue — sent by supervisors to challenge the requested variance — D’Antonio said he never tried to develop the property as a residential site.
In turn, D’Antonio questioned current building inspector Brian Swift, who has had 30 years experience as a general contractor and homebuilder.
When asked whether he would spend his own money to build a house for sale at 1281 Baltimore Pike, Swift said no, he would not. “It’s not a good location,” he said.
It also came out during Donaghue’s questioning that D’Antonio was told in 2000 that the site would always be R-2.
The applicant’s immediate residential neighbors are Paul and Kathleen Koch. Their 13-plus-acre property abuts 1281 Baltimore Pike on the north and west.
Kathleen Koch testified that she’s worried the fill operation will damage one of the streams on her property.
Under questioning from D’Antonio, she said there were no current problems with the stream, but she fears there could be if the fill operation continued.
Koch added that she could hear the fill machinery from inside her living room.
D’Antonio has 30 days in which to appeal the decision.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
