Future 4224 Baltimore Avenue construction site now has a community garden (the gate has been removed by the gardeners).
We finally have an update on 4224 Baltimore Avenue, the site slated for construction of a 132-unit residential building with ground floor commercial space that has been in the works for four years.
Some work is finally scheduled to begin on the site, according to the Spruce Hill Community Association Zoning chair Barry Grossbach. Crews will be entering the property to remove overgrown vegetation and perform a general cleaning, and additional soil testing on the lot will take place in the near future.
“The community has been anxiously waiting for progress on the site and we are now at the point where activity will be more pronounced,” Grossbach recently wrote in an e-mail.
The project, which went through an extensive planning and community approval process (although the owners can build “by-right” on the lot located across the street from Clark Park) has been in limbo since it was approved. The gates to the site surrounded by a fence have been opened in the past several months, and neighbors began venturing in and even created a community garden on the lot.
The SHCA has been contacted by ownership with the message that “the site is private property and that no one asked for permission to plant on it.”
“We wanted to make sure that anyone with a garden plot or row of corn stalks is aware of the planned activity and can salvage their plantings before work begins,” Grossbach wrote. “More importantly, ownership is concerned that the gates have been repeatedly taken off the hinges and the lot left open and unattended. We need everyone’s cooperation here for this is a concern not only to ownership, but to the community at large. The community has insisted that the lot be secured at all times for safety and security purposes.”
There may be some resistance from the gardeners though. A sign is fastened to the fence protesting the project and gentrification:
“I know I speak for many in the neighborhood when I say that development of 4224 Baltimore cannot come soon enough. Hopefully, we are nearing that point,” Grossbach’s email concludes.
It looks like there will be no major changes to the plan discussed in 2015, although the design elements will be impacted by a change in facade materials that are still under discussion, according to Grossbach. As for a start date, “all I can say is that I hope it happens within my lifetime,” he said.
June 27th, 2018 at 10:48 am
Were the heck are people going to park. there already is no parking in the neighbored. what r the business supposed to do.
June 27th, 2018 at 11:04 am
My best guess is the developers may go for the built by right option as this is the only way and most preferred option to get anything built in this area. When you go build by right, the only think the negative people can do is to choke on their gulps!
Transparency did not work as it was a few hard core community members who sabotaged the start of the project. So if you talk about transparency, be prepared to live by what you talk.
The developers are the legal owners of the site and they have the right to pre-empt community gardens from taking root.
June 27th, 2018 at 5:35 pm
LOL @ parking.
You have no right to free parking. Just checked the city charter and US Constitution…aint in there buddy.
Also, I just looked out my window and there are literally 10 spots open right now on my block. If you’re not a grifter and are actually registered to live in this community, your registration and insurance allow you to purchase a cheap parking permit. If you’re not, please leave.
June 28th, 2018 at 11:57 am
just build this by-right already. maybe folks will finally realize how to negotiate with and get concessions from developers vs. the cry baby approach.
June 29th, 2018 at 10:11 am
My son asked me (as we rode the 42 bus into Center City), “why is there so much construction. I said, “you are witnessing the results of over population. ” Let’s try to factor this in while airing concerns about evil developers and elimination of community gardens. The earth is actually mow overpopulated. Concentrating on plant based diets and reducing carbon footprints is a better way to air our commitment to real improvement.
June 29th, 2018 at 10:37 am
@ Grace. I hope your son reconsiders what you’ve said when it’s time for him to have children. We need more good, decent, intelligent people to reproduce similar offspring instead of the reverse.
June 29th, 2018 at 12:17 pm
Yeah, I mean, Philadelphia doesn’t have nearly the population it had in 1950. Literally a quarter less people.
But over-population. Uh huh.
July 5th, 2018 at 12:10 am
We are watching the effects of unbridled capitalism in one profitable corridor, not overpopulation in general. The more cars, the more pollution, the more sick people. Not rocket surgery.
July 8th, 2018 at 3:31 am
“Rocket surgery”??