John and Jill Renninger want to build four homes and some accessory buildings on adjoining properties at 800 and 1000 Hickory Hill Road in Pennsbury Township. Supervisors there held a conditional use hearing on the matter Wednesday night, but they won’t have a decision until next month.
The properties are in the R-1 Zoning District and in the Route 1 Corridor and Brandywine Battlefield Overlay Zoning District. Township zoning code requires conditional use approval for all uses in the corridor and overlay districts.
According to their attorney, Max O’Keefe, the Rennigers had previously been before the Historical Commission and the Planning Commission and received the recommendations from both.
He explained that the two contiguous properties total slightly more than 50 acres, with the property at 800 Hickory consisting of about 26.7 acres, and 1000 Hickory Hill consisting of 23.5 acres. The idea is to subdivide those two parcels into four lots and then build four single-family dwellings on each. The applicants would live on lot 2, and their adult children — with their families — would live on the other three lots.
“A constraining factor in the locations of the home on lots 1 and 2 is that 800 Hickory Hill is subject to an existing conservation easement owned by the Brandywine Conservancy. This easement prohibits any disturbance along the eastern edge of 800 Hickory Hill Road and only permits the construction of two homes within two very specific areas on the property,” O’Keefe said.
He added that they propose to add new accessory structures on lots 2 and 3, and an expansion of a shared driveway serving lots 3 and 4. O’Keefe added that those points caused the need to go to the Zoning Hearing Board, which granted them relief for the accessory buildings and the driveway.
Those accessory structures on lot 2 are a barn, a greenhouse, and a pool house, plus a detached garage on lot 3.
The Rennigers did testify during the hearing, and O’Keefe called only three witnesses: Tom Schreier, the land planner who designed the layout of the project, and architects Richard Buchanan and Edward Happ.
Schreier, the president of Hillcrest Associates, said there are natural resources, such as woodlands, streams, and steep slopes, that limit where on 8oo Hickory Hill they can build the structures in question. He added that there are two existing barns on the site, but that they are dilapidated and will be razed. As for 1000 Hickory Hill, Schreier said there are also wetlands, streams, and steep slopes that limit where buildings can be constructed.
Additionally, he said John Renniger plans to maintain all four of the lots himself and will need a tractor, log splitters, and backhoes, which in turn necessitates the need for building a new, 3,800 square foot barn on lot 2.
As for the driveway, he said lots 3 and 4 at 1000 Hickory Hill would use the existing driveway, while lots 1 and 2 at 800 Hickory Hill have a driveway connected internally with the other driveway.
Schreier added that they revised the landscaping plan to add more trees and shrubs to buffer the properties, per the recommendation of Ann Walters, the township landscape consultant, and the Planning Commission.
Buchanan designed the home and barn on Lot 2. He said the architecture follows township code, which requires buildings in the overlay district to be consistent with the historic architecture in the district, which includes English Colonial — Georgian — or Victorian styles.
He said the house is a farmhouse “very typical of the area with an entry portico, a pitched roof, and chimneys at each end.”
Buchanan said that any HVAC or other equipment that might be visible “would be housed in a fenced utility yard,” and would not be visible from the street, and added, “The house itself would be hard to see from the street.”
He added that, while he didn’t design the buildings on lots 1, 3, and 4, he did review the designs and said they do conform to the design directives for the overlay district.
The last witness was architect Edward Happ, the project manager with Hillcrest Associates, who designed the structures on lots 1, 3, and 4, and the greenhouse on lot 2.
Under questioning from O’Keefe, he said the designs for the structures comply with the code for the overlay district, which calls for buildings to be in the English Colonial, Georgian, or Victorian style. Additionally, all HVAC and other related equipment would be hidden from sight with either a fence or with shrubbery.
Judy Wilson, of the Historical Commission, said she was satisfied with the landscaping plans that were presented to the Planning Commission.
“I think it addresses all the issues that were brought up,” Wilson said.
Kay Ellsworth, chairman of the Planning Commission, explained the rationale for her group’s recommendation. There were several reasons, she said, one being that the applicants would revise the landscape plan to add additional screening. Plus, there was the matter of an historic resource on the property, a springhouse.
“Overall, the Planning Commission felt that the proposed development into four lots would fulfill the purpose of the Brandywine Battlefield Overlay District by preserving the springhouse, preserving the scenic viewshed to the greatest extent possible, protecting and expanding natural resources by planting additional trees and shrubs, and preserving or increasing property values…We felt that granting the conditional use application would be a fair and appropriate outcome.”
Supervisors are expected to announce their decision at the May 20 meeting.
About Rich Schwartzman
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.
