In the last newsletter we reported that a settlement agreement had been reached between St. Patrick Church and the Borough of Kennett Square.  The agreement, signed on November 15, 2004, provides the legal vehicle for the Church to forego the normal review process for zoning approval, as well as providing several necessary variances and waivers to the zoning ordinance to make our plan work on the expanded site.

While the settlement agreement with the borough was very beneficial for St. Patrick, giving us several concessions, it did not relieve us of the responsibility for proving our conceptual design by going through the borough’s traditional Subdivision and Land Development Approval Process (LDAP).   So, for the past few months our Property Committee has been working with our architect (Bernardon Haber Holloway), civil engineer (Gilmore & Associates) and traffic consultant (McMahon & Associates) to prepare the architectural and engineering drawings and other assorted documents necessary to submit our application for this land development approval.  On March 15 we formally submitted our application to the borough and the process of review began.  LDAP applications are reviewed by several Kennett borough agencies including the Planning Commission, borough engineer, Fire Department, Police Department, traffic engineer and borough council.  Other reviews include the Chester County Planning Commission, Chester County Conservation District, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.  The process is extensive.

Our LDAP went through the first of several reviews at the borough’s monthly Planning Commission meeting on May 11.  We had received review comments from the majority of the reviewing agencies and we were well prepared to present our case and answer all of the review questions received to date.  The Planning Commission and the borough’s legal counsel complimented us on the unprecedented completeness of our initial submission and our preparedness for the meeting.  We anticipate a need for at least one more Planning Commission review as we receive additional review comments and modify the drawings to include revisions and suggestions that we agree to.  Our goal is to receive a recommendation for approval of our LDAP at the July Planning Commission meeting.  Once this is received, the next step in the process is for the application to go before the Kennett borough council.  We expect this to occur at the August meeting.

If all goes well, we will receive final LDAP approval by the end of August.  Once received, we are free and clear to move into the detailed design phase for our project.  It is important for parishioners to realize, however, that in order to move into detailed design and eventual construction, it will be necessary to obtain additional funding to continue with the project.  We have started working with the newly formed Fund Raising Committee to coordinate activities.  Stay tuned for upcoming news on our fund raising campaign scheduled to begin this summer.