Without any change in footprint or controversial voiding of a conservation easement, the buildings could easily house 12 condominiums.
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Greylock: Two handsome, solidly-built Wissahickon Schist buildings totaling 16,500 square feet sit on 6.5 acres, right on the border of Wissahickon Park. Without any change in footprint or controversial voiding of a conservation easement, the buildings could easily house 12 condominiums.
That’s the kind of development that should readily win the approval of the community and all the local agencies involved. It’s the dream project envisioned by John Basalyga more than eight years ago. Unfortunately, the current owner, Lavi Schenkmen, rejected Mr. Basalyga’s offer to purchase the property.
Instead, he let it sit dormant and subject to all the depredations that degrade vacant properties. What’s worse, he’s now proposing to despoil the landscape and eviscerate the easement with nondescript additional buildings, paved over open space and the loss of stately trees – all for a plan that adds just three additional units to the number proposed by Mr. Basalyga.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Mr. Basalyga is still prepared to follow through on his plan to preserve Greylock’s character. He is an experienced businessman and developer of a wide range of projects, including historic restorations, and he’d like to live there.
Apparently, Mr. Schenkmen thinks he can charm the powers that be into accepting his plan for an overdeveloped new community and so far, surprisingly, he has gone some way to doing just that, winning the approval of most of the board members of the Chestnut Hill Community Association. But they don’t have the last word.
Readers, please ask yourselves which fate you’d rather see for Greylock – setting a terrible precedent by voiding an important conservation easement or restoring the mansion and carriage house with no additional buildings, no additional floors to the existing structures, no garages, no outbuildings, no subterranean parking, respecting the original architect’s work and making the buildings function with upgrades for the next 100 years and longer?
Costa Rodriguez
Mr. Rodriguez is an agent for John Basalyga
