Hammerstein hearing continued in March By Peg Quann Staff writer The Doylestown Township zoning board will continue its hearing at 7 p.m. March 16 for the proposed Oscar Hammerstein II Museum and Theatre Education Center planned for Highland Farm. At a hearing Monday night, attorneys for the township and a couple who live adjacent to the property questioned various aspects of the plan proposed by Will Hammerstein, of Brooklyn, New York, for the nearly 5-acre Highland Farm on East Road, where his grandfather lived from 1940 to 1960 and where he wrote the lyrics for many of the famous musicals that he produced with Richard Rodgers, who composed the music. Christine Cole, the farms owner, is applying for variances to make the museum and theater plan possible. Attorney Stephen Harris, representing Nicholas and Roberta Molloy, who live next door to Highland Farms, and attorney John Koopman, who is representing the township, questioned several aspects of the proposed development. They raised concerns about the number of theater employees, their parking needs, the need for security lighting on the property, drainage runoff onto state Route 202 or the Doylestown Country Club and the potential need for an extra emergency exit off the property. “I know the supervisors have a concern because it’s in a residential (zone) and the intensity of the development on a property of this size,” Koopman said Tuesday. Will Hammerstein said Tuesday he still believes the project he proposed — offering tours of the farmhouse where his grandfather lived, turning the barn into a museum and building a 400-seat theater for educational and dramatic productions — is still possible and better than an alternative plan for the site that involves dividing the property into four lots. According to Hammerstein, the planned theater and parking lot would give the Molloy property a larger buffer zone than would be if housing was approved. “We have all inherited this remarkable legacy of Oscar Hammerstein. I inherited it by accident of birth and the people of Doylestown because this is the place Oscar fell in love with. And that makes us all very lucky indeed,” Will Hammerstein said in an email request for comment on Monday’s hearing. “We are calling on the good people of Doylestown to join us in taking an active role in acknowledging this gift. The revised land plan we presented last night makes that much easier. The new plan reduces our impervious surface to a very manageable 33 percent. It provides a huge buffer from both the Molloy residence and the Doylestown Country Club that would not be there if the already approved, four-lot subdivision is implemented. And our off-site parking plan with shuttle service to local, underutilized parking facilities, will minimize additional traffic on East Road, while Doylestown will get a much needed performance space. We strongly believe that this plan is a winner for Oscar and for Doylestown.” In addition to the local interest generated by the Highland Farm proposal, the story has garnered attention overseas. On Monday, the British newspaper, “The Independent,” printed a story about the controversy that surrounds the fate of Hammerstein’s former home. After reading about the story online, Michael Thompson, of Torpay in Southwest England, who said he has had an interest in American musicals for years — specifically in the work of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, phoned The Intelligencer on Tuesday to opine that the farm should remain the same as it was when Hammerstein was living there. He doesn’t want to see McMansions there, nor a theater. “I’m very aware that today’s audiences are not cultural enough to appreciate what went before,” he said, adding that the likes of Hammerstein and Rodgers may not come again. “It should remain exactly like it was when the two men were in there carving out musicals for the world to enjoy,” Thompson said.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:14:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015