Do you think there should be a better connection of the Market-Frankford Line or trolleys to 30th Street Station? Should there be an intercity bus station there?

An example of proposed improvements near 30th Street Station (click to enlarge).

Here’s a chance to provide your input on the plan to further transform the area around 30th Street Station by participating in an online survey about potential transportation and infrastructure changes.

You might want to have a look at the current state of the project before you fill out the survey, which is located here. Here is an overview video of the planning process.

The survey includes images of the feedback exercise during a public meeting on Dec. 16, 2015. For additional details about the Draft Physical Framework, feel free to view the Draft Physical Framework Report by clicking here and check out project overview video.

The survey will be open until 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.

New 3-story apartment building with ground floor retail space at 4619 Woodland Avenue (photos West Philly Local).

Commercial and residential changes in recent months are beginning to reshape a couple of blocks of Woodland Avenue a block from the south end of Clark Park. Here is a look at some of the developments:

• A boxy, 3-story apartment building next to Gold Star Pizza and Chicken with ground-floor retail at 4619 Woodland Ave. is complete. No businesses have opened in the storefronts yet, but the apartments upstairs, which are aimed at University of the Sciences students, are open for business. The retail rental seems pretty reasonable at $15 per square foot. The apartments range from two to five bedrooms and rents are reportedly running between $800 and $3,200 per month.

“Our vision for building in the University City area is to bring a higher quality of housing to neighborhoods, which may be in need of additional housing options,” Ashley George from HOW Properties, the property manager, told West Philly Local back in April 2014. “There is not an abundance of student housing in the University of the Sciences West Philadelphia corridor.”  Continue Reading

A zoning meeting for a potentially highly-valuable piece of property on the 5000 block of Hazel Avenue is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 17. Residents are invited to hear the proposal to build a three-story single-family home on a vacant lot at 5023 Hazel Avenue, between two other three-story homes. The meeting is organized by Garden Court Community Association’s Zoning Committee and will be held at Ahimsa House, 5007 Cedar Ave., starting at 7:30 p.m. Everyone who has questions or concerns about this proposal is welcome to attend the meeting.

The 2,200 square foot lot was purchased for $60,000 in July 2015 by Elkins Park based company HSSK LLC, which is planning to build a semi-detached structure with a roof deck and a pilot house for access to the roof deck, according to the information posted on the City’s Office of Licences and Inspections website. The cleaning of the lot ahead of the construction has already begun (pictured).

The Enterprise Center Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) will provide information to residents about home repair programs at its first community meeting tomorrow. The meeting will run from 6 – 7 p.m. at The Enterprise Center (4548 Market Street).

Here’s the agenda:

• Home Repair Programs for you and your neighbors, including the PHIL-Plus and Mini-PHIL loan programs.
• Helping connect residents with other resources and services.
• How you can get involved through NAC subcommittee elections that will take place in 2016.  Continue Reading

The planning process focused on creating a single integrated vision for the area surrounding 30th Street Station continues this Wednesday with an open house. The 30th Street Station District Plan project team will present refined design ideas for the area.

The open house will be held from 4 – 7 p.m. at the station, behind the Amtrak ticket office.

More than 200 people attended the open house on June 17 to learn about and provide feedback on three preliminary concepts for the 30th Street Station District in the year 2040. The concepts are divided into three themes:

• “Central Business District 2,” a new central business district.

• “Schuylkill Crossing,” a new urban neighborhood.

• “Innovation City,” which hooks in with nearby universities, mainly Drexel.

Nearly 1,400 comments were received at the June open house and from an online survey that was posted on the District Plan website. The summary report is available here.

The 30th Street Station District Plan is a joint planning effort led by Amtrak, Brandywine Realty Trust, Drexel University, PennDOT and SEPTA with support from a wide range of public and private agencies, area stakeholders and other interested parties. For more information, visit: http://www.phillydistrict30.com/.

Rendering of 4610 Cedar Ave. Photo from www.rolaarchitects.com.

Here’s more information on the new three-story building under construction in the triangle between Cedar and Baltimore Avenues, the former location of the Philadelphia Credit Union. Construction of the mixed-use structure, which will include six residential units and a commercial space on the ground floor, began in the summer and is expected to be completed in late spring 2016, according to Philly Curbed.

As was reported earlier, the lot belongs to the Lai family, who own several businesses and other properties in the area. An appeal was filed against the Philadelphia Board of Licenses and Inspections earlier this year, on the grounds that they “did not consider the impact of adjacent property with regard to air, light and use impairment” when issuing the building permit. The affected property was not mentioned. The appeal was denied last month, and the construction at 4610 Cedar continues. Check out more renderings and photos on Curbed.