Farmhouse

A field full of sunflowers added some color to Branden Sacks' day on Tuesday. He was riding his dirt bike by the field near his grandfather's farmhouse on Haldeman Road in Lederach. The flowers' brightness would have been welcome yesterday. Hazy sunshine is expected today.

The Willistown Business Park eventually could get a restaurant rather than another office building if township supervisors approve. However, the proposal may have to wait a while after hitting a snag when a resident informed officials that the park's owners were leasing the building for offices without obtaining township approval. The proposal for the recently approved business park were reviewed by township supervisors last week. A historical farmhouse, known as the Levi Garrett House, will remain in the center of the new development.

The West Caln Zoning Board approved two variances and a special exception to zoning specifications at a public hearing on Tuesday. A variance granted to Donald Hershey of Honey Brook will allow him to build two additions to a 150-year-old stone farmhouse located on a 61-acre farm near the intersection of Route 10 and Compass Road. Hershey needed a variance for a 10-by-26 foot addition that conflicted with a requirement that side yards be at least 30 feet. Hershey also needed the board's OK for a 20-by-30 foot addition to the rear of the farmhouse, which conflicted with a requirement that back yards be 60 feet.

The farm looks neither warm nor welcoming to passersby on Bridgetown Pike. Its historic value is disguised by a weather-worn barn, a faded old farmhouse, and rusted colonial relics. The township saw beyond the present state of Playwicki Farm when it plopped down $2.4 million to purchase the 110-acre property in June. What it saw was the farm's potential as an education center in Lower Bucks County. With more than half the proceeds of a $5.4 million bond issue earmarked for Playwicki, the township hopes to turn the tired old tract into an agricultural and archaeological hub. The tentative plan, two years in the making, calls for refurbishing the two-level barn, converting the farmhouse into a museum, crisscrossing trails through the property's natural wetlands, and planting new commercial crops on 60 tillable acres.

Hoping to win community support, organizers of a self-help group for alcoholics and drug addicts have invited neighborhood residents to an open house and meeting Saturday at their quarters in a farmhouse in Pennypack Park. Leaders of the group, 369 Inc., are seeking a permit from the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment to continue using the 18th-century farmhouse. The board has set a hearing for 2 p.m. Wednesday at the City Hall Annex. John Scanlon, president of 369, said the meeting was scheduled at the suggestion of board members.

Are the deer still here? No, said some Northeast residents yesterday at a zoning hearing to oppose a drug and alcohol self-help group's plans to occupy a pastoral section of Pennypack Park. Since 369 Inc. moved into an 18th-century farmhouse off Krewstown Road last winter, neighborhood opponents said, the increased activity seems to have sent the fauna packing. "We have routinely seen animals" in the area before 369 moved in, said George Gorman, president of the Krewstown Road Neighbors Association.

The New Britain Township Planning Commission has recommended approval of plans to subdivide the Adams tract, pending a decision by the zoning board on whether zoning regulations permit three single-family dwellings on the 18.3- acre site. The tract is zoned agricultural-recreational, a designation that requires a minimum lot-size of five acres per house. Some of the land is not considered buildable, officials said. According to Robert Larason, the township engineer, fewer than 2 1/2 single-family dwellings could be placed on the tract, situated off Ferry Road near Old Limekiln Pike.

Simplicity, Leonardo da Vinci said, is the ultimate sophistication. He could have been talking about Lee and Eric Miller's house. Sophistication isn't a word the Millers use as they give a visitor a tour of their renovated West Chester home recently, but they — Lee especially — do say simple a few times. The Millers have gutted and rethought this 1854 dwelling. The first floor is nearly all open; half is kitchen and enclosed porch. The upstairs is one large bedroom, bath, and laundry area.

The city's Zoning Board of Adjustment has approved continued operation of a center for alcoholics and drug addicts in Pennypack Park. Detailing the decision, a board staff member said Tuesday that the board set a number of conditions on its grant. Conditions include creation of a community advisory board to open lines of communication between neighbors and the nonprofit, self-help group, 369 Inc., which uses an 18th-century farmhouse at 8600 Krewstown Rd. as its headquarters.

It used to be a vacant, dilapidated farmhouse, surrounded by weeds and debris. Now, it's a neatly kept meeting place, thanks in large part to the $20,000 spent by volunteers on new plumbing, new wiring and other repairs. The volunteers provide an around-the-clock caretaker for the farmhouse, at 8600 Krewstown Rd. in Pennypack Park. They razed an unsightly barn next door. They sell Christmas trees and stage picnics and fund-raising events on the site. Quite a turnabout. The story has all of the makings of a grass-roots success story, save one - the neighbors don't want the volunteers near the 18- century farmhouse.