The next Spruce Hill Community Association Zoning Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 30. Residents are invited to learn more about two proposed constructions in the area – at 4125 Chestnut and 4000 Market Streets.

Rendering of one version of the proposed building at 4125 Chestnut Street.

A 130-unit, six-story residential building, which is a “by right” development, will replace the “Wash N Lube” car wash at 4125 Chestnut St. The project was presented to the Spruce Hill community last month at the previous zoning committee meeting. “By right” means that the project is not required to go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). However, it will go before the Committee on Design Review (CDR) at the Philadelphia Planning Commission. The CDR requires that the applicant meet with the designated convening RCO for the site – Spruce Hill Community Association.   Continue Reading

Though its Friday celebration will include a life-sized West Philly-themed board game, the People’s Emergency Center (PEC) knows their work is dead serious. Created 25 years ago, the group’s Community Development Corporation (CDC) has worked to ensure that the neighborhood’s ongoing transformation creates far more beneficiaries than victims. Now, at an outdoor party on 4050 Haverford Avenue, the CDC will mark what it believes has been a successful quarter-century.

“The history… It’s tremendous. It’s not easy doing this work,” said James Wright, PEC’s Director of Community Economic and Real Estate Development.

Wright says that PEC has helped catalyze an economic turnaround in the five neighborhoods it focuses on: Saunders Park, West Powelton, Belmont, Mantua, and Mill Creek. Vacancy has plummeted while incomes and high-school graduation rates have risen, and the group said home values quadrupled between 2000 and 2013. PEC has contributed to this upswing by converting vacant lots into housing; eliminating vacancy tends to increase surrounding home values.  Continue Reading

With rapid development in Cedar Park, what steps can be taken to protect historic buildings? Community members are invited to learn more about building preservation issues in the Cedar Park area on Monday, Oct. 16 at a Neighborhood Preservation workshop presented by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. The workshop will feature an overview of historic preservation policies and the current extent of preservation protections in the neighborhood.

At the end of the workshop there will be an opportunity to share thoughts and concerns about preservation and development in the neighborhood.

The workshop will be held at the Calvary Center (in the chapel, 801 S. 48th St), beginning at 7 p.m. and will be followed by the Cedar Park Neighbors monthly board meeting.

Demolition of the one-story building at the southeast corner of 46th and Spruce Streets, which began early last week, is nearly complete. The building, which served as a social services building, Transition To Independent Living Center, was gutted by a fire in 2011 and remained vacant since then.  Continue Reading

Public response was generally favorable during a Cedar Park Neighbors zoning committee meeting on Tuesday toward a proposed three-unit building with ground floor commercial space on a vacant lot on the 5000 of Baltimore Avenue.

The building, which would occupy a vacant lot at 5047 Baltimore Ave., requires approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment because it will exceed the two apartments allowed under the zoning code. One of those apartments will include basement bedrooms, which allowed the developer to keep the building within the zoning code’s height requirements. The other two units would include two and three bedrooms each.  Continue Reading

The Cedar Park Neighbors zoning committee will consider a proposal on Tuesday for a three unit, multi-family building on the vacant lot located at 5047 Baltimore Avenue.

The building would include commercial space on the first floor and two additional floors. The maximum height of the building is 48 feet.

Community members are invited to meet with the owner, see the plans, ask questions and voice their opinion. More information can be found on the Facebook event page.

The hearing begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Calvary Center at 801 S. 48th Street (2nd floor).