In addition to the Little Baby’s Ice Cream zoning meeting, there will be two more important neighborhood development and safety meetings this Thursday, Feb. 21.

– Garden Court Community Association invites residents and business owners to join them at 6:30 p.m. at 4725 Chestnut Street for a meeting and potluck dinner. Small business and economic development within Garden Court (45th St. to 52nd St. and Locust St. to Cedar Ave.) will be discussed at this meeting. Here are some of the topics:

• Do you want information on starting a business?
• What kind of services and retail do you want to see in the Garden Court neighborhood?
• Are you interested in what community members can do together to improve business districts within neighborhoods?
• Are you a neighborhood entrepreneur interested in resources to help your business?
• What would you like to see in the neighborhood business districts (48th & Spruce and 52nd Street)?

The panel includes the following speakers: Angela Dowd-Burton (Executive Director, Office of Economic Opportunity, City of Philadelphia Commerce Department), Rojer Kern (Neighborhood Markets Manager, City of Philadelphia Commerce Department), Iola Harper (Senior Director of the Business Acceleration Group), and Mahari Baily, Esq. (Love Real Estate Group).

You can also hear updates on GCCA membership, planning, and education activities and more. For more information, please contact Kate Mills, Corresponding Secretary, at katewmills@gmail.com.

– A monthly community meeting with police will be held at Calvary Center for Culture and Community (48th & Baltimore), beginning at 6 p.m. Bring your questions and concerns and discuss crime and other neighborhood issues with Lt. Brian McBride and Sgt. Ron Washington of the University City Division of the Philadelphia 18th Police District.

Life in West Philly may soon become a little sweeter. A popular Philadelphia ice cream and frozen dessert shop, Little Baby’s Ice Cream,  has revealed plans to expand into West Philly and already has chosen a Cedar Park location. The property where the new Little Baby’s Ice Cream parlor is proposed is at 4903 Catharine Street, which is the old Fourth River Signworks property.

This Thursday, Feb. 21, the Cedar Park Neighbors Zoning Committee and the owners of Little Baby’s Ice Cream will review the proposed plans to convert 4903 Catharine Street into a takeout ice cream parlor/restaurant on the first floor of the property at a zoning meeting, which will begin at 7:15 p.m. at Calvary Center (48th & Baltimore). Vacant spaces are proposed on the second and third floor of the property. Residents are invited to the meeting to provide their feedback on this issue before a hearing at the Zoning Board of Adjustment scheduled on March 13 at 5:00 pm at 1515 Arch St.

If the proposal is approved by the ZBA and if everything else goes according to the plans, the new shop, titled “Little Baby’s Ice Cream Cedar Park Embassy,” will open in the early spring 2013.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream specializes in handmade, small-batch Philadelphia style ice cream and non-dairy and vegan frozen desserts, as well as handmade cookies and milkshakes.

Parents of some of next year’s prospective Penn Alexander School kindergartners will rally outside a University of Pennsylvania meeting on Wednesday to persuade the School District of Philadelphia to open up more spots in the school’s kindergarten and first grade. The rally comes as the District confirmed that the lottery was held and that parents would be notified by mail this week.

A group of parents of “kindergarten eligible students” are organizing the rally as Penn’s University Council meets. A representative of the group, a Penn professor, will speak during the “open forum” portion of the meeting, which allows members of the Penn community to raise issues. The meeting is only open to people affiliated with Penn and top Penn administrators are expected to be present. The rally is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. outside of Houston Hall at 3417 Spruce Street.

A Penn-affiliated parent who lives in the Lea School catchment is scheduled to speak on “partnering with local public schools beyond Penn Alexander.”

Penn Alexander rally organizers are asking that kindergarten class sizes, currently capped at 18, be increased to accommodate all registered students. Penn provides funding to the school to help keep the class sizes smaller than the District maximum of 30 seats per class.

“We request that seats be added to accommodate 22 Kindergarten students per class,” the rally organizers wrote in a statement.

The group also reiterated its opposition to the registration lottery, which was held by computer last week. According to the statement, 88 children registered for kindergarten, which includes some Head Start and special needs students who receive automatic enrollment. The increase to 22 seats would ensure admission for all students who registered.

“Based upon our group’s investigation we believe the existing kindergarten and first grade classrooms are large enough and can support more children,” the statement reads. “We believe that through a natural attrition, the class sizes for first grade will never reach close to 30.”

The group is also pressing the district to release details about how the lottery was conducted. So far district officials have only told parents that they will receive notification of their child’s status in the mail this week.

In an e-mail to prospective kindergarten parents, district spokesman Fernando Gallard wrote:

“The letter will advise if your child is admitted to the 2013-2014 class or if your child is on the waiting list. If an applicant is on the waiting list, a number advising the order on the waiting list will be cited in the letter.  The letter also asks applicants on the waiting list of their opportunity to seek enrollment at Lea School.”

– Mike Lyons

It’s no secret: property taxes for many in West Philly, especially in gentrifying neighborhoods, will increase beginning next year. Some will see dramatic increases under the city’s new Actual Value Initiative (AVI), which is designed to rectify disparities in assessed home values.

Check the assessed values of nearly every plot in the city using the clickable and zoomable map below.

Some estimates put the number of property owners who will see an increase at about 60 percent. Most of those will be modest increases. But residential properties on some blocks will see their taxes double – or more. For example,  property taxes on the east side of the 400 block of 51st street could rise as much as 270 percent. A caveat is in order here. Although the assessed values are right, the map is based on a 1.34 percent tax. City Council will set the actual rate in the spring and will also consider relief measures for the hardest hit property owners.

Property owners can also appeal assessments (see “AVI tools and resources” below).

Property owners will receive new assessments this week by mail, but the assessments are already accessible online thanks to the city’s efforts to make home values transparent. The clickable map below produced by the non-profit news and information organization Axis Philly shows the new assessed values. The darker the red, the higher the likely increase. If the property owner received a homestead exemption, that should be noted on the map.

Obviously, it’s too early to predict how these new values may impact neighborhoods. Part of the appeal (and higher sale prices) of homes in “up and coming” neighborhoods in the city like Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Powelton Village and University City were low property taxes. So the tax increases themselves will likely impact sale prices (and “actual value”).

For property owners who live within the Penn Alexander catchment, the new assessments come on the heels of an announcement from the School District of Philadelphia that the school will implement a kindergarten registration lottery. The school has already said that spots in the elementary school are not guaranteed for new children in the catchment.

Many renters could also see a bump, depending on what type of property they live in. Many large apartment complexes will see a drop in assessed value and their taxes, while homes converted into apartments are more likely to see an increase.

Large commercial properties will likely see the biggest drop. Taxes on the CVS property at 43rd and Locust, for example, could drop as much as 20 percent. But many properties that house small businesses will not fare as well.

How will the new assessed values impact you? Will it drive people and businesses out of your neighborhood?

The clickable map (press “collapse” to reduce the size of the search window):

AVI tools and resources:

• Pew Report: The Actual Value Initiative: Overhauling Property Taxes in Philadelphia.
• Appeal your assessment
• AVI Calculator
• Newswork.org’s Taxipedia.

 – Mike Lyons

Police have charged a 19-year-old West Philadelphia woman in the abduction of a 5-year-old girl from Bryant Elementary School (6001 Cedar Avenue) with rape, kidnapping and related charges.

Police say Christina Regusters was the woman who donned Muslim clothing and a face veil, impersonated the girl’s mother and took her from the school on the morning of  Jan. 14. The girl was found by a passerby hiding on a playground in Upper Darby the following morning. Regusters and three others were picked up at a home yesterday on the 6200 block of Walton Street. The other three people were released, but police say they have not been ruled out as suspects.

Regusters worked at an after-school program that the girl attended, police said. Video surveillance and the young girl’s description of the street and home have been vital in the investigation.

– Mike Lyons

Last fall we reported that a resident helped prevent burglary when he saw an unknown man standing on his neighbor’s porch and called 911. A similar situation occurred earlier this week, according to police.

On Tuesday, Feb. 12, at about 11:15 a.m., officers from the 18th district responded to a “burglary in progress” call on the 4500 block of Sansom Street.  A witness told police that he had observed a man trying to force his way through the front window. The witness chased the man from the porch and police found him a block away on another front porch on the 4400 block of Sansom.

Police chased the man down Sansom and observed him discard a black handgun before apprehending him after a brief struggle on the 4400 block of Chestnut Street. Police recovered the loaded handgun, which had been reported stolen. The suspect was carrying a bag that contained an Amazon Kindle, two digital cameras, two iPods and a tablet computer. Police say he confessed to burglaries on the 4500 block of Pine Street, the 400 block of S. 45th Street, and the 4500 block of Sansom.