Home Remodeling in Bellefonte, DE
Kitchen, bath and porch work for the small-lot houses of the Town of Bellefonte.
Bellefonte began as a stop on the trolley. The line north from Wilmington could not climb Philadelphia Pike near Penny Hill, so it ran up the street that is now Brandywine Boulevard, and developers sold lots beside it: Montrose was subdivided in 1902, Montrose Addition and Montrose Terrace in 1906, and the 1910 census called the place Montrose on Trolley. There were only 16 houses then. The town was incorporated in 1915, annexed the original Montrose tract in 1923, and kept building. In 1936 and 1937 a series of five-room bungalows, each with a garage, went up on Bellefonte Avenue, and after the war new houses followed on streets like Prospect Avenue. Today the town covers about a fifth of a square mile with 578 housing units.
That history is visible in the lots. Houses sit close to the street and close to each other, the town will not let a parcel be split below 6,500 square feet, and most of the houses were built before anyone expected a second bathroom. Dawson's serves Bellefonte for the updates these houses need, planned around a code that is tighter about footprint than the county's.
Town zoning review, then the county permit
Bellefonte splits the approval in two. The town keeps the zoning review portion of every building permit, so the first step is an application to the Bellefonte Zoning Review Board, and it has to be approved before anything goes to the county. New Castle County's Department of Land Use then issues the building permit and does the inspections, with plumbing and mechanical work permitted on their own. The one shortcut the town publishes is a roof replacement, which skips zoning review and goes straight to the county.
What the land use code allows on a small lot
The town's Land Use Code, adopted in 2010, sets the numbers that decide an addition. In the single-family district a house and its garage and shed together can cover no more than 40 percent of the lot, and the house tops out at two stories and 30 feet. Side yards are five feet each and the rear setback is 30 feet. At the front, the setback follows the established building line, the average distance of the neighboring houses on that side of the block. An open one-story porch may reach five feet past that line, and an open deck eight feet into the rear setback, but an enclosed or screened porch may not project into any setback, which matters if the plan is a three-season room off the kitchen.
Bungalows and trolley-era houses inside
A 1930s Bellefonte bungalow has five rooms on one floor, a kitchen at the back and usually one bath. Opening the kitchen to the dining room, rebuilding the bath from the subfloor with a fan and a real shower, and turning the attic or the basement into living space are the projects that gain room without adding footprint. The older frame houses from the trolley years have plaster walls and kitchens that have been redone more than once, and their windows and siding are often on a second or third round, so replacement units sized to the original openings keep the block looking the way it does.
Dawson's serves Bellefonte for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Edgemoor, North Wilmington, Wilmington and Arden.
Bellefonte is part of the New Castle County, DE service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Bellefonte?
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.