In support and appreciating the historic preservation of your project.
This is from Beth Emmett at 116 West Walnut Lane.
And as you see in the last paragraph there, she is a third person who attended and was eligible to vote as a near neighbor, but due to technical confusion, was unable to vote and would have voted for it.
This is Robert Emmett at 116 West Walnut Land.
And he is the fourth person in that similar situation who also attended and was eligible to vote, but did not do so within the voting window for reasons that, you know, we may be discussing or I think one of the witnesses will get into.
Susan Willie Bank at 124 West Walnut Lane, directly across the street from your property?
Correct.
support letter from
Joseph Vitryal.
I wanted to focus on the second page of his letter
because he goes into some detail
on the various other carriage houses
that have been converted in the neighborhood.
Could you read
can you read starting here at the besides? Besides many historic homes in the neighborhood
that were demolished or aggressively subdivided many decades ago, one, the much smaller property
at 119 West Walnut Lane was granted a variance permitting three family living in 2003 to permit
renovation of the carriage house into a separate dwelling. Number two, the adjoining property at 143
West Walnut Lane. The main house has been converted into five units and the rear carriage house has
been converted into one residential unit and 11 artist studio units approved in 2014. In fact,
many properties and or carriage houses in the surrounding community have already been renovated
into separate dwellings either by variance or subdivision. Number one, the smaller property at
154 West Walnut Lane was granted a variance for use as a three-family household living units
in an existing structure in 2020. And the carriage house to that property was previously subdivided
into a separately deeded property. Number two, the smaller property at 120 West Topohockin Street is
a seven-unit apartment building with a unit in the carriage house. And number three, the property
at 112 West Topelhocken is an 11-unit rental property with units in the carriage house.
And number four, the property at 239 West Walnut was granted a zoning permit for six-unit
household living following subdivision in October of 2020. And he says these are a few of the
examples of large historic properties within one block of your property that were constructed as
single-family residences and have been preserved by permitting the multi-family use and these are
all in single-family zoning districts correct correct the next letter is from julie stapleton
carroll 130 west walnut lane and she is a strong supporter
Emily Demarest
She's at 132 West Walnut Lane
Yep, she and Julie are both directly across the street.
Yep, she and Julie are both directly across the street
Michael Drelling in support.
This is Karen Stevens and Thomas Schwartz.
And they reference the proviso, the revised plans, is that correct?
Correct. And this letter is significant because they share the majority of the rear property line, which is closest to the carriage house.
And as you can see with those provisos, they also support the variance.
And the provisos are that we're putting a trellis and a landscape buffer to block people inside the carriage house from being able to view the yards of the neighboring properties, and we're reducing the number of dwelling units total on the parcel from three to two.
Is that correct?
it the the proviso is to provide a trellis with landscaping buffer to block view of the rear yards
from the second floor patio okay um which is something that the 158 neighbors had expressed
at the rco meeting um and even though they're uh still not supportive i i you know as a near
neighbor i would want that probably myself so i am happy to include that proviso
Gloria Del Piano, 138 West Walnut Lane, writes and support.
Padilla Morgan at 143 West Walnut Lane, writes a long letter of support.
Alicea, 149 West Walnut Lane.
Yes, these are all near neighbors within 250 feet.
Right, and she discusses other properties in the close vicinity that have been converted into multifamily.
Umi Howard.
Long letter of support.
um you have a letter from the executive director of the ebenezer maxwell mansion
uh which is a 200 west topohawken uh how close is that to your property uh it's uh i think just
outside of the um planning commission radius um and she writes to support your your plans to
preserve the historic structure
of your carriage house.
Correct.
My house, actually,
Ebenezer Maxwell
lived in my house for a time
back in the 1800s before
moving into what is now
the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion.
Ah, okay.
This is Lillian Taylor Hightower,
217 West Tobahawken.
They write a very long letter
in support as well.
Steve, how many more letters do you have?
We can dispense with more of the letters.
I think you're making your point.
They're all starting to blend together here.
And I think the map you showed in the beginning of who was for it and against it was very helpful.
All right.
This is our slate plan.
uh in our in our this is our revised site plan and we have highlighted the the changes to
uh the original plan in um in yellow we are converting what is called an existing garage
but it really is a historic carriage house um with a with a small addition into one residential
unit and one in-law suite and we are creating a landscaped trellis buffer to block views from
second floor of the carriage house onto the the yards uh of the properties off of top of hawkins
street this is um this is the main house uh of that is uh uh 6 000 square feet is that correct
mr smith i think it's 6200 okay and then the driveway is um it goes you know to to the main
house obviously this is these are these are all kinds of accessory parking spaces that are created
These are all kinds of accessory parking spaces that are created, including some accessible parking places.
including
And then the driveway goes all the way back to the carriage house, which is, as you can see, located very, very close to the corner of the property, the two of the property lines.
That's how it was built back in the 1860s.
This is a floor plan.
first floor will be the in-law suite and that's located that's i'm sorry noted in um in yellow on
the floor plan uh and uh there's a porch um the living dining room and um uh bedroom uh kitchen
area kitchenette really um and then we have um the second floor uh unit would be the the dwelling
unit that would be the rental um there are the stairs going up uh there is the trellis uh
landscaped buffer and um these this is the the floor plan for the two-bedroom apartment on the
second floor um luke tell us what we are looking at here for aerial view one this is the 131 west
walnut lane property and you can just see it in uh relative to the surrounding properties it's
much much larger um and you can see 136 um west topohocken uh they're labeled that is um the
letter of support that we referenced earlier okay which has a which has a large um it shares a large
part of your property of the property border correct and you can see 143 at the bottom which
shares the entire west um boundary of the property and there's a we have the letter of support from
that address as well as 125 in the on the right hand side there's also a letter of support from
that address as well as the properties directly across the street a number of them as well as
you know, everything else you see in the map at the front. Okay, now this aerial view too,
this is showing us the nearby homes that have been converted to multifamily,
where the location is of a high-density apartment building and existing converted
carriage houses. So the rectangles that are orange, these are converted carriage houses
that are now that now have dwelling units correct okay so there's three that are in very very close
proximity to your property yes and i mean relative i mean everything's relative there because it's
such a low density neighborhood they're still you know in some cases uh you know 50 to a couple
hundred feet away but yes they are among the closest structures yeah and there are other
carriage houses that have been converted and then the homes that have been converted i'm sorry
Steve, while this map is up, could you show me 128 West Topohockin?
That is the kind of L-shaped one.
Yeah, right there.
All right.
This is the opponent.
Right.
His house is all the way back here.
This is where the carriage house is, but his yard is obviously right abutting the carriage.
Thank you.
Area view three.
What are we noting in this photo?
Um, really just that, uh, I don't know if these, the lot depth here is entirely accurate, but, um, there's a dense, you can't really see it, but there's dense vegetation already on both sides of the property line with the 128 West Topohockin.
and i'm just ensuring that the view from the patio will be blocked um but the it's just to
give a sense of the distance of the dwelling at 128 west topohocken from the carriage house that
is proposed to be converted yes okay which appears to be in the you know 170 to 200 foot away range
for that the rear addition to that property the rearmost part of the 128 west topohocken
uh-huh is it is right here and this is where the carriage house is right um here are some street
views so this is on the other side of walnut lane um and this is your main home is that correct
correct okay and then this is your main home and this is the driveway that eventually goes
all the way back to the carriage house can we see the carriage house here not really right
have not really and this is in winter um you know it'll be even less visible when they're the foliage
is um on the trees are zoning posters uh members of the board
these are zoning posters uh members of the board
all right looking west towards 143 uh west walnut lane looking east towards 125
um and this is your house here right correct
this is the immediately adjoining property and this has five family living uh the dwelling units
in the main house and a converted carriage house? Yes, with an addition to the carriage house that
houses 11 artist studios. So there's a residential, there's five residential units in the front
main property, which is of comparable size to my house. And the carriage house has a
residential unit, and then it has a very large addition to the carriage house housing 11
offices and artist studios and that has a lot of parking spaces i remember from a photo earlier
yeah the entire yard is is paved i believe their lot is a bit smaller than mine which has no paving
on it all right now we're going to look at the carriage house itself um this is the south side
of the carriage house um so the south side is the side facing towards walnut lane correct okay
um this is the north and east side uh and this is you said it's photographed from the 120 west
top of hawken uh carriage house so we're basically um now this is this is your yard and and this is
this is the top of hawken properties yard no um the carriage house is in the top sort of left of
this screen and then the immediately to the right of that is the rear yard of one one uh 28
and then below that is the next door neighbor to them's rear yard i believe
so is one of these 126 west topohawk yes right um
Um, yeah, I think that's correct, which would have, which I believe is, um, one of the ones
that was converted, um, with the converted carriage house and multifamily in the main
house.
This is the, the north side of your carriage house, which is, um, dense vegetation and
inaccessible.
Right.
This is west of your carriage house looking towards your property line with 128.
So, you can't really see anything in 128 from the ground level, it looks like.
Right, certainly not from the ground level.
Okay, this is west-facing from your carriage house.
Yes, and it just gives you a sense of the existing low density with these structures.
Southwest-facing.
is this the property with all of the the five units yeah five in the front and where you're
yeah that's the the artist studios and residence in the back of it okay
um this is your carriage house all the way in the in the rear here correct
yes and i'm standing this is the vantage point here is the edge of the other edge other corner
other rear corner of my um property okay
all right this is a wide angle of your carriage house which is here
and this is your main house yep okay and this is your carriage house and a shed yes
the shed is is not on your property though right no it it is it's a part of the property okay
this is your main house and this is your carriage house from the southwest of the rear yard yes
this is from the third floor of your main house looking to the carriage house yeah you can't
actually really see the carriage house there it's hidden behind the tree but I just wanted to give
a sense of the size of the lot okay and this is
sort of from the other end of the edge of the main house the back of the main house where you
can see the carriage house okay um so now we have some interior photos for members of the board
uh obviously this is not uh occupied uh uh it's it's um well how when's the last time you know
that the inside of the carriage house was actually cleaned up or used for anything.
um cleaned up or or or or used for anything not in at least the last 10 years um since we've owned
it i think it was used previously um as some uh some kind of uh commercial use because the
um there was electricity and um a contractor i think maybe it was renting it there's been some
more modern, um, architectural windows and, uh, French doors installed. Okay. This is the photo
where you, um, identified certain, um, indications that there was a historic residential use on the
second floor, right? Correct. Um, so in the bottom three pictures, what we're looking at
is a small room that has plastered ceilings and walls unlike the rest of it and a closet
and a little hutch and it seems very clearly to be what would have been the groom's quarters
a living space for the groom for the horses in the stable and or the carriage driver and then
And then just outside of that room is the other two pictures we see on the bottom.