112-114 S. 43rd Street.
The Spruce Hill Community Association Zoning Committee will hold its monthly meeting on Monday, Sept. 16, and one of the proposals on the agenda is construction of a new 12-unit apartment building on S. 43rd Street between Sansom and Chestnut.
The project involves consolidation of two lots – 112 and 114 S. 43rd St. – into one with demolition of the existing structure at 114, according to a Spruce Hill Zoning Committee announcement. The project envisions the construction of 12 units with four bicycle spaces and no parking. Property is in CMX-4 zoning, which requires four parking spots.
Other items on Monday meeting’s agenda include:
• 3940 Chestnut Street: a 6th floor roof deck is proposed on this previously approved structure. The roof deck requires a “special exception” at ZBA.
• 215 S. Melville: an application will be considered for a two-family dwelling in a RSA-5 residential zone. This case was originally heard in August when the application called for a series of room occupancies. That application was withdrawn and the new application requires a separate official RCO (Registered Community Organization) meeting.
The meeting will take place at the Spruce Hill Center (257 S. 45th St.), beginning at 7 p.m. All interested neighbors and residents are welcome to attend and to ask questions and offer comments.
September 16th, 2019 at 9:50 am
3940 Chestnut Street does not have a 6th floor, but 3930 Chestnut does.
September 16th, 2019 at 11:28 am
I think we should zone some unused lots and other properties for more commerce. Stores such as West Elm and Sephora would bring revenue to the area.
September 16th, 2019 at 3:22 pm
Exploitive developers and their allies are schooling us daily. “Expensive construcrion is not hurting anyone, but rather helping everyone” they tell us, as if everyone that matters will be able to afford the new regime their greed is helping bring on. The rest can get out or be forced out, if we can’t keep up with the pace of the “progress”
The “democratic” community process is tricky: “Public comment is always welcome” they say, etc. Meanwhile, most of us are being taken for a ride.
We have no choice but to fight back, as people are all over the world are doing.
September 16th, 2019 at 7:31 pm
Sure you will. Just hold your breath until the revolution starts. I’m sure it’ll be any second now.
Oh, and I vote for a new Sephora next to Supreme’s garbage bins. Perfect on a hot summer day.
September 16th, 2019 at 10:20 pm
It’s already happening. See in particular the Philadelphia Tenants’ Union, LILAC from DSA and other organizing projects popping up here and there. We are your neighbors and we are pushing back against sketchy developers and their allies.
September 17th, 2019 at 6:44 pm
I don’t see how advocating for tenant rights, which I’m all for, is revolutionary or a push-back against developers. How do those organization “fight” development?
Tenants shouldn’t be pushed out of their homes in the middle of their leases, but if they don’t own the property and their lease has expired, then they have zero legal recourse. Not sure what exactly you’re getting at.
September 17th, 2019 at 8:15 pm
Thank you for teaching me about crimes that don’t break any laws…
I LOVE America!!!
https://alonetone.com/sacreduproar888/tracks/i-love-america
September 18th, 2019 at 5:14 am
And thank you for showing once again that you’re full of jingoistic blather and short on reality.
I’ll ask again, how are those organizations fighting development by “sketchy developers and their allies”? All you’ve shown me is that the stand for tenant rights. You haven’t cited a single example to support your position.
September 18th, 2019 at 8:24 am
I did say:
“We have no choice but to fight back, as people are all over the world are doing…It’s already happening. See in particular the Philadelphia Tenants’ Union, LILAC from DSA and other organizing projects popping up here and there. We are your neighbors and we are pushing back against sketchy developers and their allies”.
I know that such organizations have support because I know members who tell me about their participation. Anyone who cares to can critically examine the evidence for themselves and evaluate whether a given formation “stands for tenant rights”, is “fighting development by “sketchy developers and their allies'”, etc. etc.
In fact I think they should, as the predators clearly do have their eyes on our neighborhood. As previous posts might suggest, even multiple evictions (when “legal”) are something that can be justified by those who are motivated to do so. Hence I think, the focus here on the question of whether a given organization supports housing policy *as currently implemented*, or maybe might wants MORE for renters, poor people, and other human beings.
The current trends not only justify a strong defense against sketchy developers, they make it imperative.
September 18th, 2019 at 9:15 am
Yeah, I read what you wrote the last time. Again, please cite an example of how your “revolution” is fighting “sketchy developers”. People getting together and saying “we should fight sketchy developers” is just people talking and doing nothing.
Just cite one example where one of your organizations stopped a “sketchy developer.” Just one.
At the end of the day though, West Philly does not lack affordable housing. The city as a whole has a surplus of affordable housing.
September 18th, 2019 at 12:21 pm
Sorry buddy, you are going to have to cite specific claims of mine if you want me to defend them. You are going to have to manifest the intellectual gumption of making specific claims you are willing to defend if you want me to refute them.
Here though is what Noam Chomsky might call “the threat of a good example”:
https://www.facebook.com/phillytenantsunion/videos/close-the-irvine/467396743821948/
September 18th, 2019 at 6:15 pm
” We are your neighbors and we are pushing back against sketchy developers and their allies.”–you
Please cite an example of how you pushed back. Any example.
Do I need to use finger puppets at this point? Or are you gonna use that “intellectual gumption”?
September 18th, 2019 at 7:02 pm
What’s your point, goldenmonkey?
September 21st, 2019 at 2:31 pm
How about to require these builders to put parking lots in, possibly underground of the stores or apartments. Everyone is building and no place to park.
September 24th, 2019 at 4:54 pm
A hearty second to that.
I also suggest some sort of quota on cars in U.C.
September 24th, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Yeah, that’s a very practical idea. We should build walls too. You can man the drawbridge george.
September 24th, 2019 at 7:27 pm
They wouldn’t be penalized till they try to park.
September 25th, 2019 at 8:50 am
“When it’s just left up to the market to determine the floor on housing prices, it will go as high as humanly possible. That’s what we’re experiencing now—historically high rents, historically high levels of housing insecurity. Fifty-one percent of people are paying 30 percent or more of their income on rent.
We keep talking about a housing crisis—is it a crisis if it’s been in this state for the last hundred years? I don’t think it’s a crisis. I think this is housing under capitalism. It’s insecure, it’s unstable, it’s every person for themselves.” -Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
https://www.thenation.com/article/keeanga-yamahtta-taylor-race-profit/
September 26th, 2019 at 4:39 pm
Actually, the market can cause prices to go up or down. Locally, there has been a limited supply of decent rental housing, so the pent up demand will drive prices up in the short run until the supply matches. Nationally, there’s an ugly trend for housing as an investor driven product, so the normal/past profit equation is being skewed by too many folks trying to make money off of rental demand. Units are treated as commodities, not homes. It is the dark side of capitalism and the housing affordability crisis is a disgrace with the ‘perpetrators’ blaming the victims at worst, or giving a cold shoulder, at the least. I hope a newly revived co-op movement will be one of the answers, although the underlying problem of classicism won’t make it easy.
September 26th, 2019 at 4:48 pm
P.S. I’m amazed that in an area with such a high walk-ability quotient, that there’s this constant drumbeat for parking. Public transportation/ uber nation/ green lifestyles make this a glaring contradiction. Most Manhattan residents don’t have cars and most of the paid parking in the area never sells out. Yes, everyone wants stuff for free, but somewhere, somehow, somebody’s gotta pay.
September 26th, 2019 at 4:54 pm
The Right to the City is for all of us, very much including those who didn’t choose to live in Manhattan- and never will!