Historic Review Board Hearing 6.18.2019 DE Audio
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Deposition of: Historic Review Board Hearing 6.18.2019 July 3, 2019 In the Matter of: DE Audio - NCC Department of Land Use Veritext Legal Solutions 800.808.4958 | [email protected] | AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 1 1 NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DELAWARE 2 HISTORIC REVIEW BOARD 3 PUBLIC HEARING 4 Department of Land Use 5 87 Reads Way, Corporate Commons, New Castle, Delaware 6 Tuesday, June 18, 2019 7 5:00 p.m. 8 9 HISTORIC REVIEW BOARD IN ATTENDANCE: 10 Barbara E. Benson, Chairperson 11 Karen Anderson, AIA, LEED B+D 12 John T. Brook, Esq. 13 John R. Davis, PE 14 Barbara H. Silber, MA, RPA 15 Steve L. Johns, PE, PLS 16 DEPARTMENT OF LAW IN ATTENDANCE: 17 Colleen Norris, Esq. 18 DEPARTMENT OF LAND USE IN ATTENDANCE: 19 Elizabeth Caulfield 20 Christopher Jackson 21 Stacey Dahlstrom 22 George Haggerty 23 Richard E. Hall 24 Transcribed by: Karen Ehatt Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 2 1 ON BEHALF OF APPLICATION 2019-06424: 2 MAX B. WALTON, ESQ. 3 ON BEHALF OF APPLICATION 2019-02592: 4 PAMELA J. SCOTT, ESQ. 5 B.J. CAREY, VP OF CONSTRUCTION, BLENHEIM HOMES 6 DOUGLAS ERIKSEN, Project Manager, Bernardon 7 ON BEHALF OF APPLICATION 2019-0919-S: 8 CARMINE FASCIOLA 9 MARK ZIEGLER, MCBRIDE & ZIEGLER 10 GARY BURCHAM 11 12 PUBLIC ATTENDEES: 13 JOE BENUCCI 14 JAY ZIONKOWSKI 15 JANET PREGEL 16 CHRIS CARNELLI 17 ALISON MATSEN, MIDDLETOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 18 KEVIN CANECO 19 GREG SHELTON 20 COUNCILWOMAN DEE DURHAM 21 COUNCILMAN DAVID CARTER 22 COUNCILMAN BILL BELL 23 24 Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 3 1 I N D E X 2 3 PAGE 4 Rules of Procedure 4 5 Application 2019-06424 7 6 Application 2019-02592 21 7 Public Comments 48 8 Rebuttal 85 9 Application 2019-0919-S 88 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 MS. BENSON: All right. Ladies and 3 gentlemen, I'd like to call the New Castle County 4 Historic Review Board public hearing to order for 5 June 18th, 2019. It is 5:00 -- 5:01 by the meeting 6 room clock. 7 We begin with roll call. I'm Barbara 8 Benson. 9 MR. DAVIS: John Davis. 10 MR. JOHNS: Stephen Johns. 11 MR. BROOK: John Brook. 12 MS. ANDERSON: Karen Anderson. 13 MS. BENSON: Okay. Now we also have 14 with us Betsy Caulfield, the preservation planner, 15 Christopher Jackson from the Department of Land Use, 16 Stacey Dahlstrom from the Department of Land Use and 17 George Haggerty from the Department of Land Use. 18 Okay. 19 MALE SPEAKER: It was a late night for 20 us. We had events going on so all showed up. 21 MS. BENSON: Good. Rules of procedure, 22 Betsy, please. 23 RULES OF PROCEDURE 24 MS. CAULFIELD: Sure. This is a public Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 5 1 hearing conducted by the New Castle County Historic 2 Review Board. The purpose of these hearings is to 3 compile a record of relevant information regarding 4 each application and how the proposed projects affect 5 the county's historic resources. 6 To make the most efficient use of time 7 at this hearing, the following rules of order are 8 established: Following the reading of each agenda 9 item, the applicant and their representatives will 10 make a presentation, not to exceed a total of 15 11 minutes. 12 Board members may ask questions of the 13 applicant at the conclusion of the presentation. 14 The public will then be invited to 15 speak in the following order: One, those who wish to 16 speak in favor; two, those who wish to speak in 17 opposition; and three, those who wish to offer general 18 comments. 19 Speakers are encouraged to be brief and 20 to focus their remarks on historic issues. 21 So that everyone has an opportunity to 22 be heard, all speakers are limited to five minutes. 23 Any speaker may ask the Board to hold the record open 24 for submittal of written testimony if the time limit Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 6 1 is not sufficient for their needs. 2 Speakers are not permitted to debate 3 the applicant but may ask questions that the applicant 4 may choose to answer during his rebuttal period at the 5 close of the public comment period. 6 All testimony is recorded and 7 transcribed. Therefore, all speakers must come 8 forward to the table, one at a time, and state their 9 name, address and organization affiliation, if any, 10 before offering comments. 11 Random comments from the audience will 12 not be recognized. And the public is asked to respect 13 the applicant's right to an orderly hearing. 14 No recommendations or decisions will be 15 made by the Historic Review Board at this hearing 16 today. The Board will evaluate the information, 17 testimony and comments received here at a public 18 business meeting to be held at the first Tuesday of 19 next month. 20 MS. BENSON: Thank you. And before we 21 begin the rest of the agenda let me note that Barbara 22 Silber has joined the Board and that Richard Hall from 23 the Department of Land Use -- 24 MR. HALL: Thank you. Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 7 1 MS. BENSON: -- is also with us. 2 All right. Will you read in the first 3 application, please? 4 MS. CAULFIELD: Our first application 5 for the evening is 2019-06424, 734 Paper Mill Road, 6 located on the south side of Paper Mill Road, 7 northeast of the intersection with Possum Park Road, 8 Text Parcel 08-047.00-039, Mill Creek Hundred. 9 Demolition permit to demolish a single-family dwelling 10 constructed in the Craftsman style circa 1935. NC15 11 Zoning. Council District 9. 12 MS. BENSON: Thank you. And we'll ask 13 the applicant to come forward, please. And while he's 14 doing that I'll note that Colleen Norris from the Law 15 Department has joined us. 16 Mr. Walton, please. 17 APPLICATION 2019-06424 18 MR. WALTON: How are you this evening? 19 Thank you for hearing me. Just to make things easy I 20 thought I'd do a little packet that I would hand out. 21 It will make my presentation go a little quicker, I 22 think. Members of the Board, pass these across. 23 So my name is Max Walton. And I'm 24 representing actually today Wood Brothers Holding, LLC Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 8 1 which is an entity owned by myself and my mother and 2 to -- we used to purchase the property across the road 3 from her farm. And so that's what I'm here about 4 today. 5 I need to make a couple of primary or 6 initial disclosures to you. First, I'm an attorney by 7 trade. I represent New Castle County in several 8 matters and have for years. I am only here before you 9 today because I received a waiver from the Law 10 Department which allows me to represent myself and my 11 mom for this particular application and this 12 particular application only. 13 So my representation of the county in 14 this -- in this matter, please treat me just like 15 everybody else, and I should have no bearing on your 16 decision -- make a decision. 17 Second, I'd like to also disclose that 18 over a decade ago Ms. Benson, who's your chair, acted 19 as a historical expert for me in which I represented 20 the State of Delaware versus the State of New Jersey. 21 And I just wanted to disclose that for the record 22 so -- I've not had the pleasure of speaking with 23 Ms. Benson since that case ended, I don't believe. 24 MS. BENSON: That's true. Veritext Legal Solutions 215-241-1000 ~ 610-434-8588 ~ 302-571-0510 ~ 202-803-8830 AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION 6/18/19 Page 9 1 MR. WALTON: But I just wanted to 2 disclose to the Board our prior working relationship. 3 With that said, I'm here to seek the 4 Board's approval to demolish the house located at 734 5 Paper Mill Road. As I noted in our prehearing 6 submission, I grew up across the street from this 7 particular property. And if you look at Exhibit 1, 8 I'd like to show you my mom's property where I grew up 9 is 751. The property we are talking about is 734 10 Paper Mill Road, just across from the top corner. 11 And I used to live at 742 Paper Mill 12 Road which is right across the street, a house which 13 my great-grandfather built, by the way.