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“I think they’re letting years of frustration blind them to the fact there’s new energy and investment in the area,” Andrew Marx, a resident of the 15th and Manton streets and Newbold Neighbors Association vice president, said of advocates for Bill No. 110134.
The work of City Council President and 2nd District Councilwoman Anna C. Verna, the bill would amend Title 14 of the Philadelphia Code and prohibit “the issuance of any permit for the construction of buildings, additions or roof decks, exceeding a certain height, on certain properties within the Point Breeze area of the City” for one year.
Members of Concerned Citizens of Point Breeze approached Verna from August through October, claiming their community, which spans from Broad to 25th Street from Washington Avenue to Moore Street, had reached a consensus on looking to preserve architectural uniformity for the expanse, Tony Radwanski, City Council’s director of communications, said.
“The only way to gauge community reaction was to introduce the bill,” he said of the attempt to check the growth of a stretch whose lower portions www.zillow.com, a national real estate authority, deemed thriving sales territories last year.
Since its introduction, he added, Verna has received “not one call for and a million against” the proposal. A March 23 hearing before the council’s Committee on Rules united the backers and opponents. The chief voice among the former belonged to Concerned Citizens president Betty Beaufort, a resident of 18th and Reed streets, who argued two-story dwellings must remain the norm. She feels those who add stories or build three-story homes hinder skyline views and will contribute to tax increases for established residents, according to published reports.
“That’s not right,” Radwanski said of the taxation element. “Three-story homes and second-story ones are not comparable.”
Newbold Neighbors Association president Jim Resta oversees an area whose boundaries, Broad to 18th streets and Washington to Passyunk avenues, overlap Point Breeze’s. His home dates from the 1880s and contains three stories, like every other abode on the block.
“I actually agree with their argument about aesthetics, but the demands of modern building codes and modern living make a 700-square-foot house obsolete in every sense,” the resident of 15th and Tasker streets said.
The hearing led Verna, who grew up at 22nd and Dickinson streets and whose jurisdiction includes Point Breeze, to table the recommendation, with plans to gain more feedback from community meetings. South Philadelphia HOMES Inc., 1444 Point Breeze Ave., hosted a gathering featuring Verna April 7. The next day Concerned Citizens blasted the evening affair in a press release.
“Many residents believe Verna is trying to find support to renege on the moratorium,” the release claimed, adding that Point Breeze’s longtime residents have supported her in her 36-year district career. “… Concerned Citizens of Point Breeze believe Verna has received pressure from big money developers and is trying to find excuses to pull the moratorium. … [The] Point Breeze community wants the moratorium now!”
Despite ample outreach, Beaufort refused to comment further.
Beaufort desired a permanent halt to altering the two-story setup, Radwanski said. The City allows construction to reach 35 feet, with permission to expand to 38 feet coming from the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission has joined much of Point Breeze and Newbold in rallying against the measure for one simple reason, the advancing future.
The Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2, a product of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, seeks to assist in redeveloping abandoned and foreclosed homes. Philadelphia has received almost $44 million, with $7 million going to Point Breeze. Developers need to use all of the funds by ’13 to prevent having to pay back the federal government. Groundbreaking on 11 houses soon will occur on the 1700 block of Federal Street, Radwanski said.
The new zoning code, which would require homeowners to set their third-story add-ons back from the street, should be in place by year’s end.
Marx and his wife Becky live in a two-story rowhome but know an addition has benefits.
“We’re aware of the fact that for us to remain in the neighborhood once we have children, the extra space a third story provides would be crucial,” he said.
The sometimes strained relationships among new resident and community groups and their older counterparts in both neighborhoods, according to Resta, Marx, Antoinette Johnson and Gerald Ross, have often failed to include Concerned Citizens’ accepting diversity and change.
The 2010 census classified Newbold as 38 percent African American, 28 percent Asian, 25 percent Caucasian and 9 percent Latino, continuing what Resta says is a 40-year identity as a mixed-race neighborhood. The source indicates Point Breeze’s Caucasian figures have risen 38 percent since ’00, allowing whites to comprise 11 percent of the 23,585 residents. African Americans constitute 68 percent, although their numbers declined 20 percent.
Resta has attempted interacting with Concerned Citizens but has found difficulty in engaging members in an open dialogue.
“I think part of their communication problem is that they’re using this issue as a proxy when the discussion they want to have is about race,” he said.
“They are using myths about gentrification as a mechanism to scare older Point Breeze residents into hatred for anything that stands for change,” Johnson, a resident of 19th and Manton streets and co-founder of the greening group Point Breeze Pioneers, added of Concerned Citizens’ refusal to see Point Breeze’s return to being a “mixed income, mixed race, vibrant community.”
As part of its “Save Point Breeze” campaign, Concerned Citizens created fliers two years ago that decried development in neighboring South of South and spoke of an influx of “yuppies” and opposed the Planning Commission’s plan for Point Breeze development.
“The reality is that most of the residents I encounter on a daily basis are happy to see the neighborhood going back to its original condition, with homes being built, families moving in and businesses popping up,” Johnson said.
“It just flies in the face of logic to try to slow down development in any area in this economy,” Ross, a resident of the 1800 block of South 18th Street and a buyer, rehabber and seller of Newbold homes, added. “If Point Breeze continues to develop, there will be no gap in redevelopment from Center City to Newbold, which I think is crucial.”
Six weeks after tabling, the bill remains in limbo, much to the delight of many, including Marx, who feels Concerned Citizens members should use their ears as much as their mouths.
“I find myself wondering what kind of positive changes their misguided energy could go towards instead, and how much more legitimately their concerns would be taken if they showed they could embrace and rationally deal with the changes that are a natural part of the progression of any neighborhood,” he said.
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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