SEPTA is planning a Trolley Route 34 Track Renewal Project in West Philadelphia this spring and summer, according to their Community Update distributed in the neighborhood. The project is scheduled between May 19 and September 1, 2012 and includes a pre-reconstruction and four reconstruction phases.

Pre-reconstruction is scheduled for May 19-June 15 and includes rail welding in advance of construction. Rails will be welded and stored along Baltimore Avenue at four locations – between 41st and 42nd streets, between 50th and 51st streets, between 54th and 55th streets, and between 58th and 59th streets. Trolley service will not be affected during this phase, but parking will not be permitted in the area where rails are stored, with a few exceptions.

Phase I will take place from June 17 through July 7 and will include the reconstruction of both tracks between 40th and 42nd streets, beginning at 40th and progressing westward through completion of 42nd Street. During this phase, the entire two-block area on Baltimore Avenue will be closed.

Phase II is scheduled from July 1 through August 4 and includes the reconstruction of both tracks between 49th and 52nd streets. Phase III is scheduled from July 29 through August 18 and includes the reconstruction of both tracks between 54th and 55th streets. Phase IV includes the reconstruction of both tracks through the intersection of 58th Street and is scheduled from August 11 through September 1.

Throughout all phases, buses will replace trolley service from the 40th Street portal to the end of the line at the 61st Street Loop. All traffic, including buses, will be detoured around the active construction sites. All side streets in the affected construction areas will be closed to through traffic.

Some of the existing tracks were installed as far back as the early 1980s. The street structure supporting the tracks has deteriorated due to water leaks, traffic and the overall age of the street surface, which requires increased maintenance, SEPTA said. During the reconstruction, SEPTA will excavate, renew and pave approximately 7,500 track feet in both directions.

If you have any questions about this project, please call SEPTA Community Relations office at 215-580-7013.
 

Renovations have begun on the storefront at 4533 Baltimore Ave., which will be the location of a controversial Subway restaurant. Judging by the sign above, some people are still not happy about it.

Plans for a Subway restaurant near 46th and Baltimore are in serious jeopardy. The Zoning Board of Adjustment recently rejected a takeout certificate to an out-of-town franchise owner.

The franchise owner, who proposed a Subway location at 4533 Baltimore Ave., has 30 days to appeal the decision, which was handed down on Jan. 11.

Several community members and nearby residents protested the proposed restaurant, saying the increased traffic would affect properties adjacent to the proposed location.

Wilhelmina Herbert, president of the Garden Court Community Association, recently sent a letter notifying nearby residents of the decision and praising them for speaking out against the plans.

“Without community support this would not have been possible,” she wrote in a letter dated Jan. 18. “We have shown that we can come together to ensure the safety of our children, to protect our properties, and for the overall good of our neighborhood.  Our voices have been heard!”

The Subway franchisee’s application for a takeout certificate, which is required for any restaurant, was originally approved by the Spruce Hill Community Association in a December meeting. Herbert and others, many of whom said they were never notified of that meeting, asked that the ZBA postpone a decision in December to give them time to discuss the proposal.

Many residents who commented on neighborhood e-mail lists and an earlier story here opposed the Subway because it would have been the only chain restaurant among several locally owned businesses in that area of Baltimore Avenue. But residents who lived near the proposed locations, which has been home to several short-lived businesses in recent years, insisted that their primary concern was increased traffic.

The city Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) today postponed a decision on granting a takeout certificate to a proposed Subway at 4533 Baltimore Avenue to give the Garden Court Community Association, which borders the store’s location, a chance to review the proposal.

Several people who live near the storefront where the Subway is proposed attended the meeting at 1515 Arch St. and expressed concern about the increased traffic that would likely accompany the sandwich shop. Residents were led by Wilhelmina Herbert, president of the Garden Court Community Association, who lives nearby on S. 46th Street. She and other residents were concerned about the likelihood of increased traffic – from both customers as well as delivery and garbage trucks – along an alley that borders the rear of the store where neighborhood children often play.

“My issue is there is no parking,” Herbert told the ZBA.

Other residents – about 20 in all –  accompanied Herbert to the meeting. Many in attendance live on the west side of the 500 block of S. Melville and said they were not informed about a zoning meeting on the Subway proposal at the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) earlier this month.

“Not one person from the 500 block of S. Melville was aware of [the meeting],” said Herbert.

The Spruce Hill Community Association today approved Subway’s application for a takeout certificate, which is required of all businesses that serve food, with stipulations that include the building a 6-foot high fence in back of the storefront to enclose the restaurant’s dumpster. The storefront, which is about 1,000 square feet, has the proper zoning and only the take-out certificate, which is usually a routine matter, is all that is needed for the business to open.

Much of the opposition at the Spruce Hill meeting was leveled at Subway because it was a chain, according to Barry Grossbach, who oversees zoning issues for the SHCA. A letter released a few hours before today’s meeting laid out the Association’s position (it is available in full below). In it, the SHCA zoning committee writes that the committee has no legal standing to reject the application simply because Subway is a chain.

“Spruce Hill has no authority to declare a corporate operator off limits no matter the feelings of individual committee members,” the letter states. “There is no stated policy about chain operators on Spruce Hill’s commercial corridors.”

The SHCA position includes stipulations about Subway’s use of the rear alley, lighting, painting and “general aesthetics.”

But nearby residents fear, once open, that Subway will not be able to control the traffic in the alley.

Ronald Patterson, the attorney representing Subway, tried to persuade Herbert to admit that the community opposition was really because Subway would be the first franchise restaurant on that part of Baltimore Avenue.

“You want to create a commercial avenue, this is what you get – you get higher-end tenants,” he said.

Herbet responded that she had “nothing against Subway.”

The Garden Court Community Association will have a meeting on the Subway proposal likely during the second week of January (the exact date is forthcoming). In the meantime, concerned residents can direct their concerns to the chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustments:

Lynette Brown-Sow
Chair, City of Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment
1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd. 11th Fl.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
The Spruce Hill Community Association position (pdf) SUBWAY ON BALTIMORE AVENUE

Spruce Hill Community Assocation – Proviso

The City’s Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear the case today of the Subway franchise that is proposed for Baltimore Avenue near 46th Street. The franchise is planned for the storefront at 4533 Baltimore Avenue. The Spruce Hill Community Association is still finalizing its position on the Subway franchisee’s application for a takeout permit, which is required for all restaurants. If approved the Subway is expected to have a limited seating area and the owners plan to open it early next year.

Today’s Zoning Board of Adjustments meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. today at 1515 Arch St., 18th floor.

Two people, including a police officer, were hospitalized after a three-vehicle accident early Sunday morning near 49th and Baltimore.

CBS Philly is reporting that a police cruiser collided with two parked cars. A 26-year-old passenger in one car, a late-model BMW that remained at the scene this morning, was hospitalized along with an 18th District officer. Both were listed in stable condition this morning. The police car hit the BMW from rear as it was parked on the north side of Baltimore Avenue, pushing it into another vehicle.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.