4508-10 Walnut Street (Google Street View image).

Residents are invited to get more information about development projects in Spruce Hill at a Spruce Hill Zoning Committee meeting, which will take place at the Spruce Hill Center (257 S. 45th St.) on Monday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m.. The committee will inform neighborhood residents about two proposals: Conversion of the three-unit building at 424 S. 45th St. to five units and an application to divide the current nine apartments at 4508-10 Walnut St. into smaller units (for a total of 18 units).

The 9,251 square feet building at 4508-10 Walnut St. is owned by Safdan Partners LLC. Eighteen units are proposed from partially on the first floor to the fourth floor of the building, which also houses two storefronts currently occupied by LULU Cafe and Hunter Gatherer Tattoo.

The meeting has been rescheduled from January 8.

SEPTA is reminding its customers who still use tokens that token sales at cashiers’ booths and vending machines at Market-Frankford and Broad Street Line stations will be phased out starting Monday, Jan. 22. The phase-out of sales at cashiers’ booths will continue through the first week of February. Then, starting Monday, Feb. 12 and continuing through the week of Feb. 28, all remaining vending machines will be removed.

The full schedule is now available online at www.septa.org.  Continue Reading

Post Bros. co-founder Mike Pestronk during presentation of the proposed addition to the Garden Court Plaza at 47th and Pine at last night’s Garden Court zoning committee meeting.

A crowd of about 70 people gathered to hear about a proposed 243-unit addition to the Garden Court Plaza complex on the 4700 block of Pine Street voted overwhelmingly against the plan.

Proposed building rendering (view from Pine Street).

Post Bros., the current owners of Garden Court Plaza, want to erect an adjacent building that would bring the total number of residential units of the complex at the corner of 47th and Pine to 389. The plan requires the city to issue variances for both building height and density. Current zoning for the site allows for a building with a maximum height of 38 feet. The proposal would double the density maximum for the site, currently set at 170 units.  Continue Reading

Pine Street between 46th and 47th has been closed to through traffic for days due to a water leak and a sinkhole. Residents reported the leak at the beginning of last week, and then a Water Department truck responding to the call fell in the sinkhole on Friday, Jan. 12.

The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) reports a significant increase in customer service calls in January 2018, which is causing a growing backlog. A lot of the calls are reports of water main breaks in the city. For comparison, in January 2017, there was a total of 117 water main breaks for the month. In the first 15 days of January 2018, some 176 water main breaks were reported. As of January 17, the Department still had 170 leak investigations outstanding.

“We are doing our best to get those assigned and inspected,” reads a PWD statement. “We have crews working at an almost 24/7 pace right now, and we are attempting to address each issue brought to our attention as quickly as we can.”  Continue Reading

Over the past few years, we’ve lost a number of historic buildings in West Philadelphia, from churches to old Victorian homes and mansions to new construction. There have been a few meetings in the area in the past year on how residents who care about protecting historic buildings and sites can get involved with the work of such organizations as Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and University City Historical Society.

On Thursday, Jan. 18, residents are invited to learn more about the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Task Force, which was created by Mayor Jim Kenney in May 2017. The meeting will take place at the Enterprise Center (4548 Market St) beginning at 6:30 p.m.  Continue Reading

Demolition of “Wash ‘n Lube” car wash has begun on the 4100 block of Chestnut Street to make room for a pre-fab 6-story 130-unit apartment building (see rendering below). The new construction is “by right”, which means it didn’t have to go through zoning or community approval. Nevertheless, the plan for the proposed building at 4125 Chestnut Street was presented at September’s Spruce Hill Community Association zoning meeting as a heads up for the community. Read more about it here.  Continue Reading