Letters for Aug. 9: Abolition Hall supporters respond to developer

Posted 8/8/18

Facts matter for Abolition Hall development

Indeed, “community growth and historic preservation can coexist” [“Preserving history with responsible development," by K Honvnanian Division …

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Letters for Aug. 9: Abolition Hall supporters respond to developer

Posted

Facts matter for Abolition Hall development

Indeed, “community growth and historic preservation can coexist” [“Preserving history with responsible development," by K Honvnanian Division President, Barry McGarron, published August 2], but responsible development must be predicated upon a respect for the past, the people and the facts.

K. Hovnanian, its attorneys, and its public relations firm, Ceisler Media, persist in referencing the Whitemarsh Township 2003 Comprehensive Plan as justifying the construction of their "high-volume residential" community on this Underground Railroad site. The fact is that in 2013, after a public hearing, and with the unanimous support of the Whitemarsh Township and Montgomery County planning commissions, the Plymouth Township Council (the adjacent township, bordering Butler Pike), and the Whitemarsh Board of Supervisors, the Open Space chapter of the Plan was amended, categorizing this 10.5-acre parcel as a priority for open space acquisition.

Furthermore, the Comprehensive Plan refers to this section of Whitemarsh Township as “predominantly built out, there is a need to provide open space access…”

Facts matter, and this place matters.

Sydelle Zove, Convener

Friends of Abolition Hall

 

Self serving

I am responding to the self-serving and inaccurate OpEd by the Division President of K. Hovnanian Homes pertaining to their proposal to build 67 townhomes on land surrounding Abolition Hall. Their plan neither "preserves history" nor is it "responsible development". Hovnanian has ignored opinions of nationally recognized historic preservationists and continues to ignore requests, by those who object to their plan, to reduce the number of townhomes (perhaps to 50) and to create a two-acre buffer area containing a Welcome Park.

The OpEd is self-serving because it seeks to convince Whitemarsh Township Supervisors to approve the pending Conditional Use Application because Hovnanian has supposedly "listened" to historians, neighbors and community leaders. Hovnanian certainly has not HEARD those who seek to preserve this significant historical treasure. Abolition Hall, the Hovenden House, and the surrounding acreage are worthy of designation as National Historic Landmarks being critical components of the Abolitionist Movement and a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Regarding the latest "plan" submitted, the OpEd is inaccurate in many respects, including:

  1. The claim that they are "maximizing" open space. In fact, they are minimizing open space, which does violence to the setting and views of the historic buildings, and impedes the ability to preserve this historic gem. The only thing being maximized is Hovnanian's desire for monetary profit;
  2. There is no area which could even theoretically serve as a "Welcome Park" (what Hovnanian is proposing as a "Welcome Park" is a "storm water management area" which will probably be fenced off);
  3. Their claimed eventual sale of the approximate one-acre parcel to a buyer who "values this historic setting" is illusory for many reasons, including the fact that all three parking spaces adjacent to Abolition Hall may be used by residents of the proposed townhomes;
  4. Hovnanian has neither sought nor received any opinions from a historic preservationist regarding whether their plan "preserves history" or constitutes "responsible development";
  5. By squeezing the three important historic buildings (including Abolition Hall) onto slightly more than one acre, they fail to leave adequate space for visitors, including school children.

Some development is inevitable on this hallowed ground – just not the plan currently proposed by Hovnanian.

Richard Abraham

Whitemarsh

 

Where is the plan for a public park?

K. Hovnanian wrote: a welcome park has been added to Abolition Hall’s development plan. Unless a new plan is presented to the Township, no mention of a Welcome Park has been presented in public meetings. What has been presented is the reason for local citizens’ disagreement with K. Hovnanian. The current adjusted plan shows a large water management basin adjacent to Abolition Hall, not a park. As stated this basin will be owned and controlled by the private home owner’s association. Its use will be limited to and maintained as a water management feature. It would not meet the requirements necessary for the township or county to develop a public welcome park for recreation and historical interpretation of Abolition Hall and the Plymouth Meeting Historical district. We trust a productive public discussion of required space, public use and legal requirements for a welcome park will occur.

David Miller,

Elder, Plymouth Friends Meeting

 

Hearing vs listening

There is a difference between hearing and listening. There is a difference between facts and a developer's spin. Builder K. Hovnanian's plan for 67 townhouses on the historic Corson homestead at Butler and Germantown Pikes is not what Division President Barry McCarron makes it out to be ("Op-Ed: Preserving history with responsible development"). It is not the firm's consideration of the significance of the site, nor neighbors' concerns, that is limiting Hovnanian's number of units to "just 70 percent of the allowed density.” As all of us who live nearby know full well, and my family has lived here over 30 years, this land is soggy, contains sinkholes and includes a substantial wetland.

It is these site constraints that are keeping this N.J.-based real estate firm from building even more townhouses on this hallowed land. Hovnanian is showing no magnanimity here.

Linda Gardner Doll

Lafayette Hill

 

Development shouldn’t happen

In an Op-Ed published in the Chestnut Hill Local on Aug. 2, K. Hovnanian Divisional President Barry McCarron makes many self-edifying statements about “preservation” and “responsible development”. Sounds great, but the facts state otherwise. The land under their proposed development has significant and well-documented impediments to any construction. It includes a well-known and substantial wetland with numerous sinkholes throughout the limestone substrate, to which immediate neighbors can well attest. If Whitemarsh Township approves Hovnanian’s plan as it stands, it runs the risk of future litigation from homeowners who will experience all the hazards of buying into a sinkhole-rich area. The current plan should be denied.

A. Tofani

Plymouth Meeting

 

Both buildings and farmland should be saved

I am a longtime resident of Plymouth Meeting and I grew up literally in the shadow of the historic Abolition Hall. My parents purchased a house in 1956 that is 38 paces from the Abolition Hall property. That is the house I grew up in. The Corson Homestead, on which Abolition Hall sits, is under a conditional sale agreement to K. Hovnanian Homes. K. Hovnanian Homes has plans to subdivide the Corson property and build 67 townhouses on the larger portion of the divide. The townhomes will be built on the farmland that is part of the Corson Homestead, while Abolition Hall, a historic barn and the Thomas Hovenden House will be separated and dealt with later

These buildings AND the farmland were major sanctuaries along the Underground Railroad in the mid 1800's.

I include the farmland as a sanctuary because in those fields runaway slaves would hide among the crops, weeds, and bushes; and also hide in the shallow gullies of the fields to avoid being caught by slave chasers and returned to the South and their owners. This land has as much historical significance to the Underground Railroad as Abolition Hall and the other buildings mentioned above.

As a young boy, I would play in those fields with other neighborhood kids. We would run through the growing cornstalks playing all the types of kids’ games that children play. At one point, my buddies and I even tried to mow a baseball diamond out of a patch of the cornfield. These fields are much more than a playground for kids. This property holds local and national historical value. It truly is a treasure to be preserved.

It is a crying shame that this property, The Corson Homestead, is to be bulldozed plowing under the historical significance and monument status that it holds. In my opinion, the entire Corson Homestead should not be altered in any way, shape or form. It is a reminder to all of us of the past atrocity of slavery that we have been trying to overcome as a nation for the past 200 years; and a reminder of one group’s heroic effort (The Plymouth Meeting Quakers led by George Corson) to provide a path to freedom for their fellow man.

By destroying visible reminders of our past, we are essentially removing the history that tells the story. With nothing to remind us of our past, who is to say that these atrocities might not resurface in generations to come.

Tom Jones

Plymouth Meeting

 

Wayne Junction plans should include industry

I found the article about Wayne Junction very informative and intriguing.[Developer Ken Weinstein invests $12 million in Wayne Junction Revitalization Project,” August 2]

The article clearly explains how this industrial and transportation hub could be more effectively utilized. I wish Mr. Weinstein well. It is worth the effort.

Ms. Lateef hit upon the dilemma of revitalization, as it affects “gentrification” and something probably worse, the effective destruction of housing properties through “flipped” houses turned into something charitably called “boarding houses.” Both can destroy the communities, one by pricing local residents out of the market, the other by devastating neighborhoods, and deflating property values.

This area is a hub. There should be revitalization of housing. It’s wonderful that there will be new apartments, hopefully, restaurants, etc. It is in line with the Material Culture complex and the Kroc Recreation Center.

But if you want prosperity, there has to be industry-revitalization and renovation of some of the industrial buildings for industrial purposes.

The best and “greenest” use would be to renovate at least one of the factories as a “vertical farm”-producing high quality and organic produce for the Philadelphia area. We know there is a high demand for such produce in the Northwest.

Such farms have been very successful in Newark, NJ, Chicago, and other locations. Blighted industrial areas have become renovated and productive. Prudential invested heavily in Newark. Certainly, major investment firms in Philadelphia and Montgomery County could see the merit in investing here, to benefit Wayne Junction and the region as a whole.

Perhaps “gentrification” is best when it comes from within-providing good jobs to those in the area who produce goods. It will put the job-holders in the position to buy a home near where they live and renovate it. The entire community, and the region as a whole will have greater access to healthy food produced almost literally in their own backyards.

Thomas J. Shoener

Chestnut Hill

 

Dangerous intersection

Pedestrians risk life and limb at most intersections on Germantown Avenue, but nowhere is there a need for intervention more than at Germantown and Bethlehem Pike.

I'm pretty sure the light there is poorly timed to favor cars making a left turn from Bethlehem onto Germantown.

Cross Germantown from the crosswalk nearest the newsstand to the Santander Bank and time it. At most, a pedestrian walking at a normal pace gets six seconds before cars making the left from Bethlehem onto Germantown are bearing down on them. Walk with a cane, and the timing is far worse. They're lucky if they make it halfway before cars begin to intrude into the crosswalk.

Time for the city to take a look at that light.

Jeff Meade

Chestnut Hill

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