The first floor of the residential building connected to the left side of Clarkville at 43rd and Baltimore would be converted into a restaurant under a proposal considered last night by the Spruce Hill Zoning Association (Photo from Google Street View).

The Spruce Hill Community Association considered a proposal last night to convert the first floor of the row home adjacent to Clarkville at 43rd and Baltimore into a small restaurant amid concerns from some neighbors of commercial encroachment in residential areas.

Brought by the owners of the Clarkville building (not the business itself), the proposal for 4303 Baltimore includes an 1,100-square-foot restaurant on the first floor and renovated, high-end apartments on the second and third floors. In the past, the building housed three apartments, but is in rough shape, said Tom Lussenhop of Best House Partners, the building owners since May.

The proposal requires a variance for the first-floor restaurant, which has yet to be decided on (they’re open to suggestions). It will not have a liquor license.  Continue Reading

The Spruce Hill Zoning Committee will be meeting Thursday, Oct. 13 to take up three RCO cases, and community members are invited to participate in the meeting. Additionally, revised drawings for a proposed apartment building at 4043 Baltimore Avenue will be reviewed (this project is currently in the “talking stage” and no zoning has been applied for).

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the cases heard will be:

• 4407 Pine Street – currently zoned for two units, application seeks four units

• 4301-4303 Baltimore Avenue – application for lot adjustment to create one lot out of two, and for a sit down restaurant in first floor and front of the 2nd floor in 4303. 4301 Baltimore Avenue is currently occupied by Clarkville bar and restaurant.

• 4323-31 Spruce Street – application for a take out restaurant (bakery).  Continue Reading

A tall elegant chimney on this Victorian twin at 424 S. 42nd St. collapsed into a heap of bricks on Saturday, at about 11 a.m. Neighbors said the chimney had been leaning for a while.

The three-story 7-bedroom single-family house was sold in February for $410,000 to a property developer.

Here’s an earlier photo of the house pulled out from Google Street View:

This week has been rainy and gloomy in Philadelphia, but sunny weather is in the forecast for Saturday (May 7), just in time for the Spruce Hill May Fair, the annual community celebration.

The fair will take place from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. at Clark Park (43rd and Chester) and will feature attractions for everyone. For children, the fair will once again have a petting zoo, pony rides, a bounce tent and a 40-foot obstacle course, all at family-friendly prices.

Book lovers will find one of the best assortments of $1 used books the fair has ever offered, and raffle players can shoot for an Apple watch offered by University Family Fun Center. Drawings will be held throughout the day for many gift certificates for dinner and services from local merchants, including Aksum, Renata’s Kitchen, Dock Street Brewery, Philly Homebrew Outlet, Dottie’s Donuts, City Food Tours, Pattaya Grill, VIX Emporium, Jinxed, Baltimore Pet Shoppe, Keswick Cycle, Studio 34 and many more!

Raffle tickets are just $1 a piece or 6 for $5 and will be available at the Fair, or you can stop by the Spruce Hill Center (257 S. 45th St) on Thursday, May 5 (6-9 p.m.). For the full list of the participating merchants, go here.  Continue Reading

UPDATE (4/29/2016): The Zoning Board of Adjustment heard the case on Wednesday, but decided to hold the vote for two weeks at the request of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, according to SHCA’s Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach. We’ll post an update next month.

After months of discussions and re-considerations in Spruce Hill, the proposal to build a four-story mixed-use building on the site of the former Transition to Independent Living Center building at the southeast corner of 46th and Spruce St. (4534-36 Spruce St.), has received support from the Spruce Hill Community Association’s (SHCA) zoning committee ahead of its consideration by the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) this Wednesday.

The project developers presented an updated proposal for the 21-unit building with ground-floor retail and a rooftop deck during an SHCA zoning meeting earlier this month.

SHCA’s Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach wrote in an email addressed to SHCA members today that the Spruce Hill zoning committee has voted “without dissent” to support the project – with some stipulations.

“We reached agreement with the developers/owners of the project on a Memorandum of Understanding that will be made part of the record and will spell out future meetings with Spruce Hill and near neighbors on final design elements, building operations (roof deck), and construction and post construction schedules (covering such items as hours, trash pickups, retail delivery, etc). In short, we are supporting moving the project forward with the understanding that the community will be a party to future discussions on items of importance to area residents,” the email reads.  Continue Reading

A few community meetings will be held this week – in the Spruce Hill and Walnut Hill neighborhoods – where residents can learn more and ask questions about public safety, development projects, and other important issues.

Two meetings are scheduled at Spruce Hill Community Association’s office at 257 S. 45th St this week:

• SHCA Board Meeting will take place tonight (Tuesday, Apr. 12) at 7:30 p.m., and the guest speaker is Jess Hinchey, a volunteer coordinator at Refugee Corps.

• SHCA Zoning meeting is on Wednesday, Apr. 13, and has the following agenda:  Continue Reading