{"id":14821,"date":"2013-04-03T12:29:29","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T16:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14821"},"modified":"2013-04-03T13:41:37","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T17:41:37","slug":"historic-kennett-cottages-up-for-grabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14821","title":{"rendered":"Historic Kennett cottages up for grabs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longwood Gardens want to raze them; township planners seeking another option<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"LongwoodHouses\"<\/a>

These three houses are free to a new owner, with one catch: the owner needs to be able to move them off of their current site on Longwood Gardens’ property on US-1, and do so quickly. Otherwise, the homes could face demolition.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yours for the taking: three 1920s bungalows commissioned by Pierre S. du Pont to house some of his staff at Longwood Gardens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone wants to bear the cost of moving them, they don\u2019t have to buy them,\u201d Mary Ann Rossi, an attorney representing the gardens, told the Kennett Township Planning Commission at its meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

If the planning commission gets its wish, someone will avail themselves of the offer. Its members have been working to preserve the structures, contending that their historic significance merits the effort.<\/p>\n

Longwood has also made its position clear: It wants the buildings razed, arguing that beautifying the corridor along US-1, near the gardens\u2019 entrance, \u201cwill evoke the bucolic Brandywine Valley and Chester County landscape aesthetic.\u201d Plus, rehabbing the structures, which lack insulation and usable mechanical systems, \u201cwould require a significant investment,\u201d according to the demolition permit request.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ultimately, the decision lies with the township\u2019s board of supervisors, said Jim Guthrie, who heads the planning commission. He explained that because Longwood Gardens has been designated a historic district by the township, any requests to tear down buildings require a review by the planning commission, which then makes a non-binding recommendation to the supervisors. In March, the planners requested a 90-day delay to try and explore options that avoided a wrecking ball; the supervisors only granted 30.<\/p>\n

More time is needed to try “to solve the problem,” Guthrie said. He said meetings with Longwood officials have occurred; however, they have not produced an acceptable alternative use for the buildings. He said he plans to schedule another one before the supervisors\u2019 April 15 meeting.<\/p>\n

At that time, the supervisors could agree to extend the delay, issue an order to permit the demolition, issue a permit with conditions, or deny the permit, Guthrie said. \u201cDenials are usually rare,\u201d he acknowledged.<\/p>\n

Rossi confirmed that meetings attempting to find common ground had occurred, calling the process cordial and professional. But she indicated that Longwood was not eager to prolong any negotiations.\u00a0 \u201cWe do not embrace an additional delay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longwood Gardens want to raze them; township planners seeking another option By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times Yours for the taking: three 1920s bungalows commissioned by Pierre S. du Pont to house some of his staff at Longwood Gardens. \u201cIf someone wants to bear the cost of moving them, they don\u2019t have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[3101,1035,3102,369,3103,2374],"class_list":["post-14821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-jim-guthrie","tag-kennett-township","tag-kennett-township-planning-commission","tag-longwood-gardens","tag-mary-ann-rossi","tag-pierre-s-du-pont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}