Kensington/Port Richmond : Development News

Philadelphia’s Zoning Code Commission unveiled a new timeline that they hope will lead to a modernized zoning code during a six-hour public hearing in front of City Council. The public certainly got to weigh in, as 40 different people signed up to testify, split into thirteen panels of three or more people at a time.

The barrage of public comment not withstanding, the Zoning Code Commission (ZCC) announced its strong desire to pass a new zoning code in City Council by the end of the year. Perhaps no one is more eager to see a new zoning code before the year’s end than Eva Gladstein, the Executive Director of the ZCC. Gladstein is cautiously optimistic about the odds of success. "A number of members of City Council expressed their interest in passing a new zoning code before the end of the year, and we believe that while the timeline is tight, it is achievable," says Gladstein.

From the look and sound of the hearing, City Council members and public testifiers -- including community group leaders, developers, and environmentalists -- support most parts of the zoning code update. However, there are a few sticking points among City Council and the public that might impede the ZCC deadline.

Councilman Bill Green, who many believe may run for mayor some time in the next decade, has raised many of the questions and concerns on City Council. He clarified his concerns by releasing a set of 10 amendments that he feels are necessary for the proposed zoning code re-write. At the hearing, Green complained that his office had not received a revisable copy of the zoning code proposal. Both Gladstein and Alan Greenberger, Acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and a member of the ZCC, claimed they did send the document. 

One of Green’s concerns is that the proposed zoning code does not adequately restrict potentially harmful industry from going into residential neighborhoods. Some of the community groups present seemed to agree with this, as well as other aspects of Green’s amendments. Another complaint, voiced by the East Falls Community Council, was that there was insufficient, albeit improved, participation from community groups in the re-write.

With this in mind, the politicians and the public seemed ready to proceed with an improved zoning code. Speaker after speaker seemed to delight in commending the ZCC for its hard work in drafting sorely needed zoning reform. Even hesitant City Council members, like Green and Brian O’Neill, acknowledged that the zoning code needed to be modernized. Thus, it's not if, but when the zoning code reform will pass. Many hope it will be by year’s end, but that’s not a guarantee.

Source: Eva Gladstein, Philadelphia Zoning Code Commission
Writer: Andy Sharpe

If you ride SEPTA buses or trolleys, you have likely experienced what it feels like to be stopped at a red light block after block after block. The great news for you is that Philadelphia and SEPTA are working together to help alleviate your headache. In as little as 18 months, three select SEPTA bus or trolley routes within the city will be able to move a little faster, thanks to the planned re-timing of traffic lights to prioritize SEPTA vehicles.

Andrew Stober, chief of staff for the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU), explained just what traffic signal prioritization means. For instance, if a light cycle for a given intersection with no participating SEPTA routes passing through is 60 seconds, each direction would get 30 seconds of green. However, the city and SEPTA plan to utilize transponders atop buses and trolleys to alter traffic light timing so that a street’s lights will remain green for 40 seconds when a mass transit vehicle approaches.  

Currently MOTU is working with SEPTA to determine which bus or trolley routes are most deserving of traffic light prioritization. According to Stober, the five routes being debated for light re-timing are the routes 6, 52, and 60 buses, the route 13 trolley, and the route 66 trackless trolley. Stober described some criteria for the choice of routes. “All run along a single arterial with a lot of traffic signals,” he said. It is important to note that the prioritization will occur along the entirety of the three routes chosen, not just parts of them.

Interestingly, none of these routes go through Center City, which is not an accident. Stober justified these routes because they feed the Broad Street or Market-Frankford lines, which can subsequently be used to get downtown. With that in mind, the routes seem to represent many other parts of the city, including Southwest, West, North, Northeast, and Northwest Philadelphia.

Stober glorifies the transit prioritization by pointing out the many perceived benefits. The prioritization will "improve flow on capacity-constrained streets," boasted Stober. "The improvements will help increase transit modeshare." Not leaving out non-transit drivers, he added that other vehicles traveling in the same direction as the chosen buses or trolleys will also benefit from the lengthened green light.

This is all made possible by a $3.5 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA). The city and SEPTA expect the transit preference to begin in 18 months to two years. This is just the latest collaboration between the transit agency and the city it serve to speed up transit vehicles. It comes on the heels of the removal of half the stops for the route 47 bus between Market Street and its South Philadelphia endpoint.

Source: Andrew Stober, Philadelphia Mayor's Office on Transportation and Utilities
Writer: Andy Sharpe

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission is planning to conduct a blight recertification of the Germantown Avenue corridor between 2nd and Oxford Streets in South Kensington, but not everybody is thrilled about it. One group that is skeptical of the recertification is the Kensington South Neighborhood Advisory Counsel, which composed a “letter of non-support” to the Planning Commission.

The NAC is especially concerned that the blight declaration will enable developers to ignore community input and act heavy-handedly. One of the community group’s greatest fears is that this could lead the way to eminent domain. “The American Street Empowerment Zone in its heyday used blight recertification to enact eminent domain,” mentioned Erika Tapp, the director of the Kensington South NAC.

The Counsel is also rankled that two historically significant buildings were not included in the recertification. One factory is the Pieri Factory, which manufactured lamps from the intersection of Front and Oxford Streets. The other building is the Gretz Brewery at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Oxford Street. Tapp is especially enamored of the latter, calling it a “really cool older building.” Also, the neighborhood group frets about unforeseen consequences for community gardens, which are a source of pride for South Kensington.

Yet, the City Planning Commission counters that blight recertification is necessary to encourage development around the corridor. At last month’s planning commission meeting, planner David Fecteau bemoaned that 43 percent of the properties in the affected area are vacant.

Tapp said that Fecteau has done a good job of discussing the recertification with her group. She said he made it clear that the review process for blight recertification would be much stricter and firmer than previous ones, including the American Street Empowerment Zone.

Despite the efforts of the City Planning Commission to assuage neighborhood concerns, Tapp summed up why so many residents are skeptical about the blight recertification. “It’s a mistrust of the political system,” relayed Tapp.

Unfortunately, people in this community have seen similar situations in the past, and are not happy with how they turned out.

Source: Erika Tapp, South Kensington Neighborhood Advisory Counsel
Writer: Andy Sharpe

Consider it crowdsourced city planning. The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation's Master Plan is open for public comment until August 26. Since June 13, when the summary report was released, Master Planning Manager Sarah Thorpe says about a hundred comments have come in, and the entire effort has been a significant public process. "Urban planning has changed a lot over last 30 years," says Thorpe. "Today, people are very interested in how the environment develops. We are addressing different problems and a different demographic."

Essential to the new master plan is access. It's not your 18th century waterfront model. When I-95 was built, the Philadelphia stretch of the Delaware river was an aesthetically bereft industrial zone best left to longshoremen. Interstate 95 is a huge barrier, says Thorpe of the 1960s era public works project that was once considered a beneficial rampart. "People didn't want to live next to a sugar factory or a coal yard." Now, she says, the highway keeps residents from what they want. The main point of the DRWC's master plan is to make 95 less of an impedance.

Philadelphia 2035, the citywide planning effort, is underway, but Thorpe says the waterfront couldn't wait. While there are actually 47 streets that cross over or under the interstate, "it's more of a perceived barrier in peoples' minds."

The new plan creates connections in two ways, says Thorpe: by adding destinations to  the riverbank, and by making connections more attractive through lighting and landscaping. Several early action projects, the Race Street Pier and Washington Avenue Green, were completed during the Master Plan design phase as a way to give the public a glimpse of the future.

As far as feedback, Thorpe says comments have ranged from overarching issues like density, boat access and parking, to small problems like typos in the document. After the August 26 deadline, Thorpe and team will compile public input, make judgement calls on priority, and expect to release the final revised version in October. But, stresses Thorpe, it will be a living document, subject to accommodation and change.

Source: Sarah Thorpe, Delaware River Waterfront Corporation
Writer: Sue Spolan

You may find it surprising to learn that Habitat for Humanity, one of the best known and most beloved charities in the country, operates a charity of its very own. Appropriately enough, it serves the general contractor community and the DIY home-repair crowd.

And while ReStore, as the business is called, isn't technically a charity in the strictest sense of the word, it's tough to come up with a better way to describe the place. But here's an honest effort: It's a cut-rate, bargain-basement retail shop, where all manner of donated and used home-repair supplies are on offer. It sells everything from door knobs to window panes to penny nails, as well as the pre-loved furniture you'll need in order to properly transform a rehabbed house into a livable home.

Until very recently, the ReStore existed only within the somewhat dim confines of the Habitat for Humanity's 19th Street warehouse in North Philly. Come July 23, however, the ReStore will relocate to a proper retail space at 2930 Jasper Street in Kensington.

"The most successful ReStores are about 18,000 square feet," says Gail Lankford, the store's director. (Habitat for Humanity operates 700 different ReStores across the country.) "We needed to find something that was affordable, and that was a warehouse space." The Kensington shop, she says, clocks in at about 19,000 square feet.

The William Penn Foundation, in fact, helped out in grand style with the new space's affordability, donating a total of $85,000 to the project. Which was certainly an appropriate gesture, given that 100 percent of the ReStore's proceeds are given directly to Habitat for Humanity, which in turns uses those funds to construct houses for the less fortunate.

Following the ReStore's July 23 "soft opening," a grand opening will happen on September 10, says Lankford, complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony, major sales, and prize giveaways.

Source: Gail Lankford, ReStore
Writer: Dan Eldridge

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The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) has been working for quite some time now on what it's referring to as a "master plan" for the future of development along a six-mile stretch of the Central Delaware Riverfront, from Oregon to Allegheny avenues.

And now -- finally, after months of waiting -- the public is being invited to experience the final presentation of the plan at 6:30 p.m. on June 13, in the Pavilion at Festival Pier. "What we're going to be showing," says DRWC president Tom Corcoran, "is a plan that makes parcel-by-parcel recommendations as to what our consultants believe would be the best use of all that land."

Along with comments by Mayor Nutter and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Alan Greenberger, a 45-minute Power Point presentation will be revealing a host of hugely exciting potential plans for the riverfront, including a wetlands park with marshes and aquatic life in South Philly, somewhere between Mifflin Street and Washington Avenue. Other possibilities include an aquatic theme park at Penn's Landing, as well as a longer-term plan to complete a deck over I-95 from Front Street to the waterfront, in between Walnut and Chestnut streets.

"Part of what will make this plan achievable," says Corcoran," is that it's had a tremendous amount of citizen input, and it's not being done by a group of planners working in a vacuum."

This presentation, by the way, will be the last chance for the public to provide feedback. So in other words, if you have any interest whatsoever in the development that will soon be taking place along the Delaware -- and especially if you'd like your voice to be heard -- this is an event you really shouldn't miss.

Source: Tom Corcoran, Delaware River Waterfront Corporation
Writer: Dan Eldridge

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The concept of cohousing--a collaborative style of living in which a number of different families participate in each others' lives, and may even bunk underneath the same roof--certainly isn't anything new. The idea originated in Denmark, and today, in some of the more liberal corners of the U.S., cohousing is practically considered mainstream. There are websites, annual conferences, and even cross-country tours promoting the lifestyle.

And yet in a hardscrabble city like Philadelphia, cohousing is just about as edgy as it gets. So it makes sense that one of Philly's edgiest home designers, Postgreen Homes, has announced plans to build a six-unit cohousing space in Kensington. And while each of the units will have its own kitchen and living area, large common areas--including a commercial kitchen, a dining room, and a roof deck--will be shared.

Postgreen is joining forces in the venture with the team from Independents Hall, the Old City coworking space. Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman says that he and his business partner, Geoff DiMasi, have long talked about the idea of "reinventing some other elements of life" in the same way they reinvented their work lives after Indy Hall was opened. Those very conversations, in fact, eventually led to the idea of creating a cohousing village. But as Hillman is quick to point out, "Cohousing is more than just providing common areas for renters. The cool thing about it," he says, "is that the communities are designed by the members of the communities."

Currently, Hillman and his team are searching hard for those members, as a fairly steep amount of money needs to be raised by June in order to secure the preferred plot of land. To learn more about joining the community, visit village.indyhall.org.

Source: Alex Hillman, Independents Hall
Writer: Dan Eldridge

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When the locally-adored Kensington restaurant and craft-brew bar known as the Memphis Taproom was last in the news, back in March 2010, it was due to a truly unfortunate circumstance involving restrictive state alcohol laws and the perennially unpopular Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Responding to an anonymous tipster, the PLCB raided the Taproom--along with West Philly bar Local 44, and the Resurrection Ale House in Graduate Hospital, all of which are owned by Brendan Hartranft and his wife, Leigh Maida--for serving beers that hadn't been officially registered with the commonwealth.

And while the Memphis Taproom is once again finding itself the subject of media attention, this time the news is considerably happier: In an attempt to build its local profile by providing a bar experience that's unique to the neighborhood, the Taproom has constructed an outdoor beer garden in its next-door lot. The garden features white oak tables and an atmosphere that Hartranft describes as "a mini block party." Outdoor stereo speakers will soon be added to the mix, and eventually a projection TV will show sports at night.

But the garden's best feature is almost certainly the food truck that will be permanently parked in the lot. According to Hartranft, the truck will do double duty as both a gourmet hot dog cart (all dogs cost $5.00) and a bar serving nothing but craft beers in aluminum cans (Sly Fox; 21st Amendment; Oskar Blues).

And while the Taproom's new addition didn't exactly come cheap (the total cost was around $135,000), "we're adding another anchor to a neighborhood that desperately needs as many anchors as it can get," Hartranft says.

The beer garden's grand opening took place this past weekend, and it's currently open for business Mon-Thu 4-10pm, Fri 4pm-midnight, Sat noon-midnight, and Sun noon-10pm.

Source: Brendan Hartranft, Memphis Taproom
Writer: Dan Eldridge

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When Microsoft's $63 million School of the Future opened in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park in September 2006, expectations among area parents--some of whom nearly battled in order to secure a spot for their children--couldn't have possibly been higher. But by the time that first class of students was preparing to graduate, attitudes surrounding the school--which didn't require textbooks, and where many of the core subjects required for university admission weren't offered--had shifted considerably.

Today, many of the school's educational kinks have been duly worked out. But if such a project was proposed within the city today--that is, if a public development project was proposed to take place within Philadelphia's public park land--the eventual outcome would almost certainly be different. That's because on April 15, Mayor Michael Nutter signed an ordinance to amend the approval process that takes place when the city's public park land is transferred to some sort of non-park use, as was the case with the Microsoft high school.

"It's an effort that's really been spearheaded by the Parks and Recreation Commission," explains Patrick Morgan, who works underneath Commissioner Mike DiBerardinis. "What it does," he says, "is it establishes a process that's predictable and transparent for all the parties: for City Council, for citizens, and for the (Parks and Recreation) Commission."

And while there aren't currently any plans in place to change usage of city parkland, this new ordinance, which is set to take effect with the change of the fiscal year (July 1), will set in motion that new process of transparency.

"Right now, all (city) parkland is being used for its intended purpose," says Morgan. "But if someone proposes changing the use for whatever reason, then this process kicks in."

Source: Patrick Morgan, Department of Parks and Recreation
Writer: Dan Eldridge

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It probably goes without saying that the average visitor to the Philadelphia International Flower Show, which kicked off this past Sunday and runs through March 13, doesn't likely expect to encounter anything even remotely political or societally challenging during their time at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where the show is being held. But this year, along with the copious floral displays and the gardening exhibitions, the nonprofit New Kensington CDC will be hosting an exhibit that began as a vacant and littered inner-city lot, and which explores the significant effect that simple, do-it-yourself gardening can have on blighted urban neighborhoods.

"From Blight to Blossom" is the name of the exhibit, and its conception was the result of a partnership between the New Kensington CDC and Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development. Its intention, according to a press release describing the project, is to "tell the story of an urban side-yard transformed from a vacant lot into a garden."

"It struck us as a really good opportunity to let the public know about the ways in which the city is working with local groups to improve the quality of life in the city's neighborhoods," says Paul Chrystie, of the OHCD. The exhibit itself is essentially a recreated lot that has been transformed by Kensington-area children. There are hand-painted flower pots and a garden path built of steppingstones, and as Chrystie explains, the project, which was paid for by the Philadelphia Flower Show, was completed for less than $1,000. The idea, says Chrystie, is to convince visitors to undertake something similar in their own neighborhoods.

"It really is an economic development strategy as well as an aesthetic and an environmental one," Chrystie says of the greening of vacant city lots, which has been proven to increase property values. "And that's one of the reasons we've been funding them for so long."

Source: Paul Chrystie, Philadelphia Office of Housing and Community Development  
Writer: Dan Eldridge

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When Community Design Collaborative (CDC) Executive Director Beth Miller ran into volunteer Scott Page at Reading Terminal Market two years ago, a chat about their favorite Amish pastries turned to what was next in industrial redevelopment. Page mentioned a partnership between Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and the City Planning Commission to create an industrial reuse strategy. CDC's Infill Philadelphia project was already on the lookout for opportunities to lend a hand and this project seemed like a perfect fit.

In February, Infill Philadelphia launched its Industrial Sites initiative, a design proposal contest searching for three types of industrial redevelopment. The Neighborhood anchor focused on creating an incubator for new industry. Mixed-use focused on creating new industry side-by-side with housing. And the Making Connections challenge coupled industry with environment to create an industrial campus and riverfront amenity in one. Three volunteer design firms unveiled redevelopment proposals to the design community in May. On Tuesday, CDC released a publication to show off the projects to the rest of the city.

"Industrial redevelopment is one of those problems that seems unsolvable," says Miller. "There are so many older buildings out there and nobody quite knows what to do with them. We thought this was a good strategy to showcase a new generation of urban industry."

The Industrial Sites initiative is the third phase for Infill, an ongoing redevelopment advisory project that has worked on affordable housing, commercial corridors and food access. With their new publication showing what they can do, Miller hopes to draw inspiration for her next project.

"We hope to make this an ongoing thing through our service grants, so non-profits can apply to us to address an industrial site in their neighborhood," says Miller. "We've already gotten two or three applications like that so we hope to continue that work on a case-by-case basis."

Source: Beth Miller, Infill Philadelphia
Writer: John Steele

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey announced last Tuesday that Pennsylvania would receive $47 million in federal transit and infrastructure grants as part of the Federal Transit Administration's State of Good Repair program. As SEPTA updated its hybrid bus fleet two years ago, the lion's share of the funding went to Pittsburgh's Allegheny County Port Authority for a clean diesel fleet of their own. But SEPTA didn't come away empty handed, receiving $8.1 million for two infrastructure improvements a long time coming.

The first grant will revamp SEPTA's Parkside Bus Loop, helping reconnect this West Philly neighborhood. But the second, more universal improvement will aid in future upgrades. Using $6.4 million, SEPTA will install an asset management system to aid in record-keeping as many of Philadelphia's transit assets come up for repairs.

"A lot of our infrastructure dates back to the early 1900's and were taken over from other private companies," says SEPTA CFO Richard Burnfield. "What the FTA was trying to focus on is knowing what you have out there in the field before you can make an assessment as to what your overall needs are, coming up with a plan for when things should be replaced."

The system will help SEPTA keep better records so when funding is available, the authority can make a more organized, more compelling case for further federal dollars as the fleet is upgraded.

"Right now, we do a very good job of managing our assets so while the records are not as computerized as we'd like them to be, we have so much knowledge within our engineering staff that I feel we make excellent decisions," says Burnfield. "But I think this will help us going forward so we can do a second check on things as our staff reaches retirement."

Source: Richard Burnfield, SEPTA
Writer: John Steele

In science fiction novels and books about the future, a few technologies are boilerplate: flying cars, meals in pill form and the ability to teleport instantly from place to place. National commuter rail company Amtrak took another step toward teleportation on Tuesday with its announcement of a high-speed rail vision plan. In Tuesday's news conference from University City's 30th Street Station, with Governor Ed Rendell on hand, Amtrak officials laid out their goal to create a line with average speeds well over 130 mph, saving passengers between one and two hours on average.

"Amtrak is putting forward a bold vision of a realistic and attainable future that can revolutionize transportation, travel patterns and economic development in the Northeast for generations," says Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman.

The plan, entitled A Vision for High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor, proposes a full build-out to be completed by 2040. Its construction, Amtrak says, would create more than 40,000 full-time jobs annually over a 25-year period, building new track, tunnels, bridges, stations, and other infrastructure. Predictably, the cost for such a project is high, $4.7 billion annually over 25 years. But Amtrak's feasibility studies peg the Northeast as a "mega-region" capable of drawing the type of rail traffic to make such an investment profitable. And with some premier legislative voices like New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg and Massachusetts' John Kerry already voicing their support, we may be teleporting out of 30th Street Station sooner than we think.

"Amtrak's High Speed Rail plan will create jobs, cut pollution and help us move towards a modern and reliable transportation system network in the Northeast," said Kerry in a recent statement. "As countries around the world continue to build out their transportation systems, we
cannot afford to fall further behind. This is an important down payment on the massive commitment necessary to bridge our infrastructure gap." 

Source: Joseph Boardman, Amtrak
Writer: John Steele