4224 Baltimore Avenue site. (Archived photo/ West Philly Local)

There’s a new date for the first community zoning meeting for the apartment complex proposed at 4224 Baltimore Avenue. The meeting, which was postponed due to snow, will take place at 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26 at University of the Sciences, Rosenberger Hall (43rd Street between Regent Sq and Woodland Ave), Room 101. Community members are invited to provide their feedback on the project.

And here’s what to expect at the meeting, according to Spruce Hill Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach:

“The developers will present their plans on massing and design for the site reflecting ideas emanating from the three community meetings held during 2013, as well as the current assessment on  the economics of the project. We will also receive details on the nature of the variances that the project will require should it reach the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment. We urge all interested parties to attend and take the opportunity to ask questions and offer comments.”

“Gray Area” cards a meant to start a frank discussion about historic preservation.

The Mantua neighborhood is going to see a lot of change in the coming years. Community groups in the neighborhood – which is bounded by the 31st Street to the east, 40th Street to the west, the Powelton Village (and Drexel University) neighborhood to the south – are moving fast to make sure they have a voice in the change.

So is Drexel University. Students are increasingly moving into the Mantua neighborhood because of the cheaper rents. The neighborhood is also part of the federal “Promise Zone.”  Mayor Michael Nutter recently promised to “bring back Mantua.”  Drexel officials recently announced that the university will build a “Penn Alexander style” K-8 education complex on the site of the shuttered University City High School. That will push up nearby real estate prices, much as the Penn Alexander School did in the Spruce Hill neighborhood.

The talk around Mantua and nearby neighborhoods is: What will the neighborhoods look and feel like in 5 or 10 years and how can current residents have a say? Here are a couple of upcoming events that will help focus that discussion:

• Creative Neighborhood Redevelopment, tonight (Thursday, March 13), 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Mantua Haverford Community Center (631 N. 39th Street).
A discussion about how artists can spearhead creative neighborhood redevelopment within their local communities. Guest speakers include Rick Lowe (Project Row Houses, Houston), Kyong Park (Los Angeles/Detroit), and Transformazium (Braddock, Penna). Temple Contemporary organized this event. Register here.

• Gray Area “Cards,” Wednesday, March 19, 6 p.m.at Monica’s/St. Andrew’s Church (3600 Baring Street).
The card game is a way to promote discussion and “provocative thinking” about old neighborhood buildings. This game is focused on the Gray Area focal point, Hawthorne Hall at 3849 Lancaster Avenue. More info is available here.

Two years ago people participating in State Farm’s Neighborhood Assist campaign helped two West Philly non-profits, Neighborhood Bike Works and West Philly Tool Library, win $25,000 grants each for community improvement projects. This year, the youth-led philanthropic program has returned and anyone with a Facebook account can nominate and vote for their favorite local cause. The program’s goal is to improve neighborhoods in three important ways: education, community development and safety.

Here’s how it works:

• Identify and submit a cause using the Facebook app from March 3 through March 23, 2014.
• The first 4,000 Neighborhood Assist submissions will be reviewed by the State Farm Youth Advisory Board (YAB).
• Two hundred finalists will be chosen.
• The finalists will be announced on Facebook.
• Public voting to select the winners takes place April 28-May 16.
• Winners will be announced on May 27 on Facebook.

Forty causes with the highest numbers of votes will be selected to receive the grants. In 2013, over 3.4 million votes were cast and the difference between the 40th and 41st cause was only 62 votes! For more information about the program, click here.

The first zoning approval meeting for the proposed apartment complex at 4224 Baltimore Avenue, which was scheduled for Monday, March 3, has been cancelled due to severe weather forecast, Spruce Hill Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach announced via e-mail. A winter storm watch is in effect for Philadelphia from Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, according to Accuweather.com.

“We do not want to hold a meeting that people might have difficulty traveling to and incurring unnecessary risks in the process. This project is sufficiently important to our neighborhood that it should be scheduled free of nature’s complications,” Grossbach writes.

The meeting should be rescheduled within the next couple of weeks. We’ll post details as soon as we have them.

Representatives from The City School explain their plans to SHCA (Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local)

Last night, representatives from The City School unveiled plans to redesign the entry way of its Spruce Hill campus at 4115 Baltimore Avenue, building what they called “a more identifiable, uniformed” entrance that would better introduce the Christian academy in the neighborhood.

The Spruce Hill Community Association Zoning Committee considered The City School’s plans during a routine meeting Wednesday night. According to school representatives, the Spruce Hill campus redesign will include construction of a new facade that will build out the elementary school’s entrance right to the sidewalk. Currently, the frontage of the Baltimore Avenue site has multiple entrances for varying purposes, often confusing guests coming to the academy. Creating a singular front entrance, they claim, would rectify this issue.

As outlined at the meeting, the project would introduce a cedar wood terrace with iron wood brackets displaying the academy’s name, new black wrought iron gates, an art mosaic, and updated planting in the frontage.

The representatives did admit the redesign runs into property line issues, so once they hear the SHCA Zoning Committee’s feedback, they plan to seek a zoning variance within the next month in order to move the project forward. Jake Becker, head of The City School, said during the meeting that they hope to start construction in July and have it complete before the 2014 – 2015 school year starts in September.

Formerly known as the Spruce Hill Christian School, The City School’s Spruce Hill campus is one of three schools run by academy, which includes a middle school at 4501 Walnut Street and the former City Center Academy high school at 315 South 17th Street. In 2006, Spruce Hill Christian School merged with City Center Academy, but the unified school continued to operate under two names until last year.

“Being committed to the neighborhood is important to us,” Becker said at the meeting. “While we changed our name, we’re committed to being a good neighbor.”

During Wednesday night’s meeting, the SHCA Zoning Committee also heard from the owner of 517 South 41st Street regarding her application to convert her three two-bedroom apartments into six one-bedroom units, which she said she would market to graduate students and young professionals. In order to go forward, the owner, who bought the property in October, would have to seek a zoning change for the property, which is currently zoned as three-family dwelling. (The owner was already granted an interior alteration permit in January for renovations on the existing apartments.)

The plans received a lot of pushback from the Committee and other community members present, with one committee member suggesting creating smaller units “will not improve the urban condition on that block.” Committee Chair Barry Grossbach said plainly the owner’s desire to convert the house goes “against the grain” of what the SHCA “is encouraging,” which is the development of more single-family units. Grossbach and other members pressed to the owner that her building has existing features—like a large backyard and close proximity to transit—that would attract young families and couples as renters.

Grossbach said the Committee will get in touch with the owner about their opinion within the next few days. In the meantime, a zoning hearing is scheduled for the property on March 19.

–Annamarya Scaccia

A mural at the Alexander Wilson School. (Archived photo).

Drexel’s planned purchase of the University City High School/Drew Elementary School site is one of four tentative deals the School District announced yesterday.

The West Philly-based property developer Orens Brothers was named the finalist to redevelop the Alexander Wilson School property at 46th and Woodland. As we reported earlier this month, they plan to build a residential complex on the site. Orens Brothers has developed several properties in the neighborhood, including the infamous Croydon building.

The district’s chief operating officer, Fran Burns, said during a meeting to announce Drexel’s plans for the University City High site that the district will make about $23 million on the sales of seven properties that are currently pending. The University City High site contains three properties (the high school, Drew and the affiliated Walnut Center).

Finalists for other properties include:

• Shaw Middle School (54th and Warrington) to Mastery Charter School. Mastery’s Hardy Williams High School is already housed in that building.

• Douglas High School in Port Richmond to Maritime Academy Charter School.

Harrison Elementary School (10th and Thompson) has not been sold. Some 21 more district properties closed last year will be for sale in the coming years.