Dear Greenville community leader/residents,

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come to our Greenville community meeting on June 25, 2008. We had almost 200 attendees. I appreciated the opportunity to apprise you of the details about the Stoltz organization’s 3 Greenville area projects and the applicable legal standards which the County Land Use Department will apply in evaluating and modifying these proposals. Please continue to monitor www.bobweiner.com, www.kennettpike.com and www.nccde.org for additional details and to reference the relevant documents and code sections. I hope to see as many of you as possible at next week’s Tuesday July 1 public meeting at 7 PM. Whether you are speaking or just present in support, you WILL be making a difference. The meeting location is the James Gilliam Building, New Castle Corporate Commons. Please call my aide Lou Hinkle for directions or other questions. [395-8362]

I attach a copy of the relevant deed restrictions which bind the old Columbia Gas parcel aka 20 Montchanin Road. The deed restrictions prohibit the construction of any additional buildings. Stoltz will need New Castle County Council approval to amend the deed restrictions. I also attach the County Land Use Department’s formal response to Stoltz Exploratory Plan for 20 Montchanin Road.

I attach the Land Use Department’s Greenville Center Exploratory Report which rejected the 12 story tower proposal. We have no reason not to expect that a new plan will not be filed.

Lastly, I attach for your review a copy of the Department of Land Use Exploratory Plan Report dated June 19, 2008.  This report provides comments to the applicant on their recent plan submission for development of the Barley Mill Plaza. The Barley Mill Plaza Major Redevelopment Plan filed on 3-31-08 in the New Castle County Land Use (Application 2008-0275): The Stoltz proposal appears to include 29 buildings for the Barley Mill Plaza site. The number could increase or decrease slightly, depending on whether some of the multiuse buildings would be considered connected.  There is one 10-story structure, one 9-story structure, four 8-story structures, two 7-story structures, six 6-story structures, two 5-story structures, two 2-story structures and eleven 1-story structures.  Again, that number may vary slightly, because several of the buildings have multiple levels.  These buildings appear to be positioned along the back perimeter line of the current Barley Mill Plaza overlooking residences in Westover Hills, West Park and Westhaven. You can access the referred to New Castle County Unified Development Code sections at www.nccde.org. The traffic surrounding the site could triple. The square footage is proposed to increase from 1 million to 3 million square feet. At the 6/25/08 Greenville community meeting, I took an unofficial vote and virtually all 200 attendees voted that they had serious concerns about the Barley Mill Plaza proposal.

There is no such thing as an “upscale movie theatre” as touted by the Stoltz organization. Ask my constituents in Brandywine Hunt next to Brandywine Town Center. They regularly have a flow of teenagers exiting from the movies late at night who trespass on their property: urinating, doing drugs and more. The height of the buildings will detrimentally impact residents in Westhaven and Westover Hills. The height of the buildings will loom over any berm, buffer or fence. The noise will be perceptible. There will be a sense of violation of privacy as experienced by the residents who live in the shadow of the Rollins Tower on Concord Pike.

Here is one of the applicable ordinances:

mixed use. One (1) or more buildings on a lot planned, designed and managed as an integrated development comprised of residential and nonresidential uses oriented to a pedestrian precinct and intended to provide convenient shopping, employment and residential opportunities while reducing vehicular trip generation.

SECTION 40.03.318 mixed use

All mixed uses shall meet the following requirements:

A. The mixed use development shall include a minimum of five (5) dwelling units comprising a minimum of twenty-five (25) percent or a maximum of fifty
(50) percent of the total gross floor area on the site.

B. In addition to the residential requirements above, mixed use development shall include a minimum of three (3) different uses from at least two (2) of the following land use categories: Commercial retail and service, Section 40.33.240 (E); Office, Section 40.33.240 (L); Restaurant, Section 40.33.240 (K); Institutional neighborhood, Section 40.33.230 (E); Public service, Section 40.33.230 (H). Gas stations, single use (e.g. stand-alone or pad
site) restaurants, and restaurants with drive through service shall not be permitted in a mixed use development.

C. Residential uses shall provide outdoor areas greater than or equal to one hundred twenty (120) square feet per unit, or the equivalent using one or a combination of the following methods:

1. Balconies or roof gardens;

2. Parks or parkways with a minimum of twenty thousand (20,000) square feet of lawn area located within the development; and/or

3. Paved pedestrian precincts which may count for no more than forty (40) percent of the requirement.

D. In the OR and ON zoning districts, a minimum of sixty-seven (67) percent of the nonresidential gross floor area of the mixed use development shall consist of office uses.

As your 2nd district County Councilman for the Second District, I invite you to attend the Planning Board Hearing scheduled for Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Multi-Purpose Room of the Gilliam Building, 77 Reads Way at 7p.m. The Land Use Department professional planners will carefully consider your comments if your remarks are within the parameters of county code.

Relevant Files:

20 Montchanin Road (old Columbia Gas parcel):
+ Deed Restrictions
+ Exploratory Report
+ Kennett Pike Association Notice to Membership - May 2, 1968
+ Letter from Columbia Gas executives - May 3, 1968
+ Letter from Prickett and Prickett to Greenville Residents - Nov 4, 1968

Barley Mill Plaza Exploratory Report
Greenville Center Exploratory Report

"The unintended consequences of sound emanting from Stoltz's proposed Barley Mill Plaza project” by David Amado - David Amado's 7/1/08 testimony before the NCC Land Use Dept & Planning Board

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