Presentation to
the KSABA
by Dennis Melton, Melton Architects
July 13, 1999

Dennis Melton is an architect who has assisted tenants and building owners in Kennett Square in completing renovations in the commercial district including Harringtons's Coffee Co., Gallery Restaurant and Pizzeria, 110 E. State Street, and the Kennett Revitalization Task Force's Building (The Center). Dennis is familiar with design, code compliance and construction issues.

Purpose: The purpose of the presentation is to provide information that will assist owners and tenants who are intending to do large and small renovations in Kennett's commercial district.

The zoning permit application is an application to the Borough for the intended use of the building. In the Kennett Square commercial area, retail is required from the center line of state St., 60 ft from that center line into the building. The rear of the building beyond the 60 ft can be office or retail. On the upper floors of the commercial buildings in Kennett Square, the approved use is office or apartment/residential.

A zoning application is not required if there is no change in building use. Existing zoning or approval of the application for zoning allows the approved uses even though the tenants may not be secured as yet, or may change. For example, if the entire first floor of the building is retail and at some future date, the rear portion of the building becomes office and the front remains retail, a new zoning application will not need to be made. Also, as new tenants come into the building, there will not be a requirement for a new zoning application.

When signs or changes to the facade of the building are intended, these proposed changes must be submitted to the Architectural Review Board. The ARB will make recommendations to the person proposing the sign or facade changes and submit it's recommendation to Borough Council for approval. Borough Council is not obligated to accept the recommendation of the ARB. The Borough Council can decide to alter the recommendations of the ARB, send considerations back to ARB for review, or may reject the recommendation of ARB. Once Borough Council has approved the recommendations of the ARB or reached their own decision, a Certificate of Appropriateness is then issued to the applicant. The Certificate of Appropriateness is one of the required components to obtaining a building permit.

Obtaining a Building Permit for interior or exterior renovations to a building is required in the Borough of Kennett Square. The components necessary for obtaining a building permit include Labor and Industry approval from the State of Pennsylvania, Health Department approval from Chester County, and the Certificate of Appropriateness from the Borough of Kennett Square.

Any interior renovations that include changes to sizes or number of rooms and any construction on the exterior of a building require a building permit. A building permit application must be obtained from the Borough of Kennett Square, filled out, and submitted. A building permit for interior renovations will require plans that are sealed by a registered architect or engineer, which would include floor plans, and any details showing the structural and other construction aspects of the project. Safety code issues must be addressed such as egress from the building, emergency exit signs and lighting.

Included with the application for building permit must be approved Labor and Industry documents. Labor and Industry is the state building permit agency requiring essentially the same required by the Borough.

A building that is renovated need not be brought up entirely to current code. The rule of thumb is that if you do not make changes to a specific area, that area does not need to be brought up to code. For example, if you are only applying paint to an area, or other cosmetic renovations, code upgrades may not be required. A good example is a toilet room. If you change the size of a toilet room, you would be required to bring it up to full accessibility codes.

In some areas of the building, even if there is no construction occurring, some changes related particularly to exits and fire-rating will be required. Many buildings in Kennett Square have not had Labor & Industry (L&I) approval in the past and when substantial renovations are done to a building, it will need to go through an entire review by L&I. For example, at Harringtons, even though the first floor was the only part that was being renovated, L&I needed to look at the apartments above and their exits and fire code issues. L&I will often grant variances for aspects of a building that are not fully up to code, but that are reasonably safe. For example, L&I will require two from each floor of an existing building. If one of the exits does not have a fully code compliant stairway, L&I will often grant a variance so that the owner will not have to renovate that stair.

The building code issues related to the building permit specific to the Kennett Borough are based on the BOCA code 1996. The Building Inspector in the Borough reviews the plans and the L&I documents submitted to the Borough for Building Permit. If the plans do not comply with the Borough of Kennett Square's building official's interpretation of the code, those plans will be marked where they are in violation and/or revisions required. If the Building Inspector approves the building permit based on the marks on the plan, then the marks on the plan must be addressed in the construction. During construction, the Kennett Borough Building Inspector will do inspections of various aspects of the project for code compliance.

The architect should be involved with the project during construction as well as in design and documentation to assist the owner in reviewing products submitted for approval, to review the contractor's applications for payment, and to observe the progress of the project for compliance to design documentation. Once construction is completed, the Kennett Borough Building Inspector grants a Certificate of Occupancy if satisfied that code compliance is complete and the building is safe. Once the Certificate of Occupancy is granted, then the owner or tenant may occupy the building for the intended purpose.

see also: CODES, PERMIT OFFICIALS, AND YOUR DESIGNER