Central Roxborough Civic Association
Quality of Life Issues
Graffiti- If you see graffiti, report it by calling 311.You must provide the following information: address, whether it needs to be painted or sandblasted, side or front of the building, business or residential.
Bike Race- There has been a proposal by the organizers of the annual bike race held on the 1st Sunday of June, to change the course length and the date to the 1st Saturday in June.
This would decrease cost of police and security.
Manayunk Neighborhood Council opposes this change.
CRCA has also opposed this change.
Old Business
CRCA surveyed neighbors to get their opinion.
Based on these surveys, CRCA did not oppose this zoning change.
Planet Fitness was given the “go ahead” by neighbors.
They plan to convert the former Chrysler Dealership at 6225 Ridge Ave(between Hermitage St and Leverington Ave) Neighbors are concerned with outdoor lighting(not to be too bright) and landscaping.
A zoning hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
The Coalition of Civics is working with Councilman Jones and his staff to address the party house situations in our neighborhood.The 1st line of defense is to call 911(that way there will be a record of the report), also call the 5th District to speak with Officer Kline(community relations officer).
There has been a presentation to the Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association to build 32 homes(16 twins) on the site of the former Ivy Ridge Personal Care center(5627 Ridge Ave across from Kingsley St) Contact Drew Bantly, President of WNCA with questions.
New Items
Bernard Guet of the Roxborough Development Corporation will be contacted.
Minutes of General Meeting January 4, 2012
General Announcement- Fall Tree Planting will take place on Saturday, November 19th Meet at Kendrick Recreation Center at 9a.m. Our group has approximately 20 trees to plant.
Guest Speaker- Bob Torres, Architect, his office/studio is at 5150 Ridge Avenue. He is a member of Roxborough Development Corporation, on the design committee and owner of 439 Monastery Ave.
Future Meeting- Ed Hotham plans to invite Fran Burns from L&I to speak to CRCA regarding party houses, parking issues, landlord responsibilities etc.
CRCA General Membership Meeting
Minutes
May 5, 2011
Discussed: 551 Dupont Street, 8 town homes proposed. Needs a variance because of smaller than allowed lot sizes.
Coalition of civics purpose is to improve the neighborhood and to ferret out illegal rentals. Member civics include Manayunk, CRCA, WICA. There are concerns about illegal open “beverage” containers and the failure of 5th District police to enforce the law in this instance.
350 Green Lane status: neighboring developer may have purchased the house on corner. There was a mudslide next to the new homes.
Octavia Hill buildings(Pechin Street between Krams Avenue and Dupont street)are scheduled for remodeling.
RDC Report: Roxborough Resource Guide is in the 2nd printing. Local businesses are listed and it is available to shoppers in most local shops.
A business new to Ridge Avenue named The Foodery is in negotiations with RDC to purchase the 6148 Ridge Avenue property.
Other matters: Problem dogs should be reported to the SPCA, phone number is 267-385-3800.
Graffiti should be reported to 311. The Anti-Graffiti Network is very responsive.
The New Zoning Code can be found at Zoningmatters.org. The ‘steep slope provision’ has been updated to reflect the previous language because of local member efforts.
For the Bike Race a night court has been established at the 5th District. It will be held from 8 pm till midnight several nights before the actual race. The times for this court are currently in negotiations.
Citizens who have unresolved issues should contact Channel 10, Problem Solvers.
Next meeting at Leverington Presbyterian Church on June 2, 2011 at 7:30 pm.
CRCA General Membership Meeting
March 3, 2011
CALL TO ORDER
Ed Hotham called the meeting to order at approximately 7:35 p.m. Attendance sign-in sheet was circulated. Attendance was large: approximately 20, including a Boy Scout Troop fulfilling their Civics merit.
PRESENTATIONS/SPEAKERS
Octavia Hill Association Inc.
Cooper Winston and Steve ____________ represented Octavia Hill Assoc. and its plan to renovate and develop their properties on the 35,000 block of land between Pechin, Krams, Dupont. Current tenants rent these properties, which were mostly built in 1926 or thereabouts. Octavia is a For-Profit organization with a mission of providing housing for the work force. It was founded by Quaker women who wished to provide housing for people of modest income. This is the only plot of land/properties in this area owned by Octavia Hill. It also owns in QueensVillage, Port Richmond, Germantown, and West Oak Lane. Octavia Hill makes a small profit.
To renovate these houses, they will need to increase rents from the $700-$900range to $1000-$1350. They will look to bring in tenants who can afford this somewhat higher rent, and will work to relocate existing tenants to other properties where the rents are still low. (One attendee expressed the regrettable outcome that these people may have lived here for many years and now will have to live elsewhere.)
Renovations will take place in 3 phases, starting with the properties on DuPont, and they will attempt to bring them up to the level of new homes on Dupont.
A 10 page Development Summary was provided for review. It outlines the details of renovation plans for 23 row houses, and possible construction of 11 new homes on Dupont Place, a small street running in the interior of their property.
Renovation work to begin this year. They do not intend to change the brick faces on Krams. New construction will require Zoning approval.
Bike Race 2011
Don Simon explained a two-pronged approach planned by the newly formed Bike Race neighborhood committee to control illegal and indecent behavior at this year’s race. This approach is to improve control of partying during the race; if it is not successful, they plan to take action to stop the race in future years.
1. Increased enforcement, arrests, and curing of underage drinking and vandalism
2. Request that the Liquor Control Board support the presence of a Judge on site, as at the football games, to provide decisions about bad behavior on the spot.
514 Monastery
The survey of the neighbors was approving of this new construction, so CRCA wrote a letter of support to the Zoning Board.
The Church at Monastery and Manayunk sold this past month. This will lead to renovation and construction of the property.
631 DuPont – Councilman Jones has yet to take a position on the proposed construction on this property.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20
CRCA General Membership Meeting
February 3, 2011
CALL TO ORDER
Ed
Hotham called the meeting to order at approximately 7:35 p.m.
Attendance sign-in sheet was circulated. Attendance was large:
approximately 25
PRESENTATIONS/SPEAKERS
Officer Charlie Klein
Thanked Civic for Holiday donation to the Police Christmas Children's Party.
Things
have been generally quiet in the 5th District. Stolen GPS units are
the biggest problem. He cautioned people to take them out of their cars
and to remove evidence of it from the windshield.
A Resident from
Roxborough Ave and Terrace St complained about construction workers
parking carelessly. Klein said to call 911 and an officer will come
look into it.
Church at Manayunk and Monastery:
Renovation/Construction Project Project to be called The Bell Tower.
Developer Andy Thomas proposes to convert the church property into
apartments and homes. He will create 3 homes on Martin, one on
Monastery, convert the church to one-bedroom apartments, and rehab the
Rectory as a single house. There will be 14 parking spaces built under
the structures. He said he made the units
on the small side –
1900-2100 sq. feet, and they will be less likely to become rental
units. Construction will start with the Rectory, while waiting for
subdivision approval to get through Zoning. Whole project will take a
year. Sale of property has not been consummated and is pending his due
diligence.
Attendees raised concern about residents of these
properties taking up more parking. Thomas suggested that area residents
lobby for angled parking on Lyceum to create more parking spaces, and
that he would support their effort to do that. Attendees also expressed
concern about impact of construction on parking and walking, while it
is going on. The concern was noted by Thomas.
514 Monastery
(516-518)?– Developers Steve Rothensberg and Dan Borksen They rehabbed
514 (house next to lot), now they wish to build new construction on lot
where shed currently exists – 516-518. Property is zoned R-5. They need
a variance because they are 1.5 feet short of width requirement. House
would be 3-story, 2800SF, selling for $329K-$350K. Roof will be flat.
Height will be under 35 foot Zoning limit. They plan to give back 12
feet of what is an existing 31-foot curb cut. Said house styling could
be similar to 514 house they previously rehabbed. The design shown to
the meeting did not look like 514; it had had a brick front, many
attendees felt it was unattractive. The house is intended to be placed
on eastern-most property line, blocking view of windows at 520. Sharon
Crawford suggested a Paver driveway rather than Macadam. Developers have
rehabbed spaces at 419 Leverington Ave., 137 Dawson, 4130 Silverwood,
and somewhere on 4100 Block of Pechin.
CRCA told attendees it will survey the neighborhood and, based upon response, write provisos in its letter to Zoning Board.
Attendees
expressed big concern about how close the house will be to neighboring
house blocking their windows with a building less than 8 feet away.
Builders said it could be moved, but failed to adequately explain why
their drawing shows it so close to 520..
Concern was also
expressed about how unattractive design is in the drawing. Builder said
that could be easily changed, but that they have a hearing on Feb. 22
and so any design renderings would not happen before zoning hearing. It
seemed that any change in design would be very superficial if they are
to have the hearing before submitting design alterations to the
neighbors. Celeste Hardester suggested a bungalow style house would be
more appropriate on the block, as there are others of that 1 ½ story
style on the block (541 Monastery).
213 Roxborough – Developer
Jerry Logue, joint venture with Mariellen Wagner Logue plans to build
two 3-story houses on Terrace end of property, and one 2-story house
with pitched room on existing house property (Wagner’s home). Existing
home will be knocked down. There will be parking for the two houses but
not for the third. This is one property being subdivided into three.
It is zoned as R-10A. Homes will be set back 20 feet from property
line. The tree on the corner will be taken down.
Square footage
for homes will be 1450 for Wagner’s , 1467 for middle, and 1647 for
house on Terrace end. This end house will list at $639K, middle house
at $619. Wagner is keeping the third house.
Height will be 32’4” with Roof decks.
Logue wishes to start building April 1 and be done in 12-16 weeks.
Property will be surveyed 2/8/2011.
He plans to present to Zoning and if he doesn’t get approval , come back to CRCAand then civic can survey the neighborhood.
Concern
was expressed about adequacy of parking and problems during
construction with vehicles illegally parked making driving and parking
difficult, and walking hazardous.
Other Matters
Sharon Crawford made a request to submit neighborhood clean-up ideas to her for spring clean-up.
Meeting adjourned at 8:45.
Ed Hotham
ehotham@yahoo.com
Minutes of January 6 2011 General Meeting
Old Business:
1. SJU Lacrosse team
party house 4313 Manayunk Ave.
Denys Davis,Off-Campus Housing Coordinator/Community Liaison
Saint Joseph's University, will be contacted again.
2. District 2: 531 Gates St party house. 3 ChestnutHillCollege(CHC) students on the lease and 6-7 living there. Neighbors have called police numerous times and Officer Kline has been there several times. L&I hasn't acted. Problem not resolved. Dr.Lynn Ortale CHC has talked to the neighbors. The Dean of Students will talk to the 531 Gates students whenever classes resume from their holiday break.
New Business:
Introduction and
Presentation by:
Peter F. Kelsen, Attorney, Blank Rome LLP.
Thomas Chapman, Attorney, Blank Rome
Architect for Galman Group(Developer)
631 DuPont Street, Donna Court, property construction:
Phase 1: Addition of 24 parking spaces at 631 Dupont,
for a total of 60 parking spaces at the Donna Court apartments.
Phase 2: Construction of 8 3&4-bedroom attached townhouses on vacant land
on the 600 Block of Green Lane.
Zoning Notice posted at 631 is incorrect and poorly written.
A CRCA Board member has taken photos of the Notice.
Zoning Board hearing on the application is January 19 at 2PM, 1515 Arch Street.
The entire property is zoned R-11 which is multi-family, high-rise buildings.
Original zoning dates back to 1961. The new townhouse proposal is considered
single-family, low-rise.
Zoning is two-fold change for Green Lane:
they are encroaching on the set back by 5 feet and building on a slope.
Additional parking at 631 needs a variance
No additional runoff is allowed on the property and must be contained.
Construction on slopes need Zoning Board and Wissahickon Watershed approval.
A 20-foot retaining wall is going to be needed for the Dupont parking lot.
Townhouses will be 40 feet high in three stories above the garage level.
2000 sq ft four-bedroom,or 1900 sq ft three-bedroom.
They are 21 feet to 31 feet in from the property line on the street.
They will have no sidewalks. Between curb cuts it is 12 feet (not enough for
on-street parking or visitors.
The 8 attached houses will be 16 feet wide each
with a front parking pad and 1-car garage on the ground floor.
Zoning Board requires 1 for 1 parking. Developer claims these are 2 for 1.
The developer will be the Galman Group
They plan to start construction in spring or late summer
with a 6 to 9 months time frame for completion of construction
Minutes taken by Ed Hotham ehotham@yahoo.com,
Ann Levering CRCA Member & Richard Levering, District 2 Rep and Webmaster
www.CRCA.us