Wrarasicos GROSSO Larry J. Tarabicos Geoffey L. Grosso Soott L. Matthews Michael J. Hoftiman Thomas F. Driscoll IIL Bradley B. Marcum (NJ and PA only) Adrian E. Ciacei (PA only) June 7, 2018 ‘New Castle County Planning Board ancl New Castle County Department of Land Use Government Center 87 Read's Way ‘New Castle, Delaware 19720 Re Requests for Subdivision V: 2018 — 0290 SV ances — Hamlet 4; Application Lamy J. Tarabieos Larry@tatabicosztosso.com (0) 302-757-7807 ‘One Corporate Commons 100 West Commons Boulevard Suite 415, New Castle, DE 19720 302-797-7800 \www.tarabicosgrosso.com ‘To the Members of the New Castle County Planning Board and Department of Land Use: This letter supplements the submission we made to you yesterday, based upon testimony received yesterday evening, We would like to address a few specific items that were raised, First, Mr. Forsten stated that under the Village and Hamlet Code townhomes and semi- detached homes cannot back up to Open Space. This is incorrect; there simply has to be an alley between the homes and the Open Space. ‘Mr, Snowden asked if the large area of single-family detached homes in the back of the site complied in any respect with the lage and Hamlet Code. The answer is that they DO NOT. ‘The Applicant has requested four things: (1) to have the garages flush with the house, rather than set back from the house; (2) to have wider driveways; (3) to permit parking in all parts of the driveway; and (4) to climinate the street screens for parking. ‘This is the opposite of what the Village and Hamlet Code calls for and entirely self-imposed, Mr. McGlinchey wanted more clarity about the nature of the opposition to the variances. First, it is not a Hamlet and, therefore, should not be processed as a Hamilet, unless it can comply with the Code requirements, as did the original Plan for Hamlet 4, All variances ate self-created, Second, it establishes a bad precedent for developers to dramatically increase density on $ zoned properties without secking a rezoning. And, finally, ifthe properties that are master planned to be Villages and Hamlets suddenly become conventional, market-rate housing, then the market will ovs4e42D00x2New Castle County Planning Board and New Castle County Department of Land Use June 7, 2018 Page 2 be flooded with this type of housing and it will be more difficult for the Village of Whitehall to be successful. That not only creates an unfair and unequal playing field, it would also be very unfortunate. It would render all of work, efforts, hopes, and aspirations of transitioning residential development in New Castle County in a different direction, essentially meaningless, ‘The Applicants are taking the wrong approach here, Rather than posturing this Plan as a Hamlet and then seeking subdivision variances to make it a conventional subdivision, it should either seek an ST rezoning of the property, or ask County Council to make some changes to the Village and Hamlet Code to accommodate what they want to do. As they pointed out, there is already a fully engineered Plan for Hamlet 4 that they can use and build their homes. Finally, as Mr. Schell stated at the end of his testimony, it takes a lot of “gall” for a developer to take a Hamlet or Village and then ask for subdivision variances to make it a conventional subdivision. We agree. LyT/rim, o0034642,000K2