Home Remodeling in Arden, DE
Remodeling for the leasehold houses of Arden, planned around the Trustees' sign-off and the village's trees.
Arden was founded in 1900 by the sculptor Frank Stephens and the architect Will Price as a single-tax community on Henry George's principles, with money from the philanthropist Joseph Fels and the Arts and Crafts and Garden City ideas of the time. Nobody in Arden owns the ground under the house. The Arden Trust holds all the private land and leases it on renewable 99-year terms, and residents pay land rent assessed on the square footage of the leasehold, not on what is built. About half of the village's 160 acres stays open as forest and greens. It started as a summer place of tents and rustic cabins, and Price designed its early permanent houses: Green Gate, Friendly Gables and The Second Homestead in 1909, Rest Cottage and The Lodge in 1910. The village went on the National Register in 1973, and the Ardens Historic District, taking in Ardentown and Ardencroft, followed in 2003 with 563 contributing buildings.
Arden has 239 housing units, many of them small houses enlarged over a century. Dawson's serves Arden for the kitchens, baths and additions these houses call for, and for the paperwork that comes with building on leased land.
The Trustees' letter comes before the county permit
Arden is incorporated, with a Town Assembly that meets at the Gild Hall, but building permits still come from New Castle County's Department of Land Use. The step unique to Arden sits in front of that. Any project that changes the footprint of a house needs a signed non-objection letter from the Trustees of Arden, and the county will not accept plans the Trustees have not stamped. The Trustees ask for two sets of drawings, a current boundary survey when an addition comes within five feet of a setback, and a copy of the final permit before work starts. Work inside the existing footprint, like a kitchen or a bath, does not need the letter.
Setbacks, garages and trees on a leasehold
The Trustees' memo lists the county's NC-10 zoning for the village, with 25 feet at the front, 30 at the rear and 8 at each side. It also notes an Arden quirk: county code prohibits a garage in front of a house, but many Arden garages were built that way before county code arrived in 1954, so the Trustees will support a variance for one, which the county's Board of Adjustment decides. Trees are the other constraint. Removing a tree from a leasehold takes the Trustees' written authorization, and the forest, civic and safety committees hear about any building request that reaches toward the forest edge or the right-of-way.
Working in a house that grew
Many Arden houses are a small original with rooms added in later decades, and the remodel usually lives in the newer part. A kitchen rebuilt in a later wing leaves the original rooms alone; a bathroom under the eaves needs framing rethought to fit a shower with headroom. The National Register listings recognize the village but add no county review step, since the county's own guidance says a Register listing does not monitor private projects. Replacement windows and siding are still chosen to suit the lane, because in Arden that is what the neighbors, and the Trustees, expect.
Dawson's serves Arden for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Claymont, North Wilmington, Boothwyn and Bellefonte.
Arden is part of the New Castle County, DE service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Arden?
Call Dom with the address and the project, or send the details through the form. The walkthrough is free and the estimate comes in writing.