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As South Philly evolves and booms into 2015, there are a handful of projects in the works that will define its neighborhoods’ landscapes into the future. There’s a proposal for a 113-unit mixed-use apartment complex at 2401 Washington Ave., and the Mt. Sinai Hospital that lays vacant at South Fourth and Reed streets may soon be demolished. But the project that’s nearest to fruition, one that will add a much-desired green space to South of South, is Carpenter Green at 17th and Carpenter streets.
“This is something that I’ve been working on since 2008,” Lauren Vidas, the chair of the South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) board, said. “It started off as survey where we asked ‘What do you want SOSNA to focus its efforts on?’ One of the amenities that people thought was lacking is green space.”
SOSNA’s Clean and Green committee did a good amount of legwork but, because Julian Abele Park at 22nd and Carpenter streets was very fresh, was mostly rebuffed by then-City Council president Anna Verna when it took aim at the eight-house lot along the western edge of South 17th Street. But after she left and 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson arrived at City Hall, they’ve had more luck picking up momentum.
“[Johnson] and his staff have been really great. They’ve been our biggest cheerleaders on this project, and he has been extremely supportive in terms of pushing this project along,” Vidas, a resident of the 1500 block of Montrose Street, said. “He introduced a bill to rezone the property, [which would] rezone the property to green space – to preserve it as a green space. It legitimizes our efforts. This is not a neighborhood pipe dream. This is on its way to becoming a reality.”
Though hesitant, Vidas said she hopes work will begin within six months.
“Ideally, we’ll be able to get Phase 1 soil down, make it flat, and hopefully that will get done in the next couple of months. Once we do that, we’ll be able to start to activate the space.”
With Edwin M. Stanton School, 1700 Christian St., and a renewed interest in South Philly neighborhood schools, having Carpenter Green across the street wouldn’t hurt. Also, with a large residential development diagonally across the street in Carpenter Square, and a brand new development project green-lit across 17th Street from Carpenter Square, a green space is starting to feel like an emergency need.
“When SOSNA came to the Councilman in 2012, they had compiled a great number of signatures from around the neighborhood expressing support for the maintenance of this particular lot as green space,” Steve Cobb, Johnson’s director of legislation, said. “Part of the motivation for maintaining this as green space was the lack of dedicated parks space in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. SOSNA asked the Councilman to work with the Redevelopment Authority, which is the agency that owned most of the lot at that location, to commit these lots as open space rather than offering them up for another use.”
Vidas and SOSNA’s Clean and Green committee paid their own raised money to rip up invasive trees that were harming homes near the lot and got vacant homes, which sometimes housed squatters as much as 30 feet from Stanton students, taken down.
They got help from Maser Consulting, who provided some pro bono design services, and recently partnered with the Goldenberg Group, who’ll match what SOSNA raises with grant support.
“We’ve raised about $80,000 so far over the last year, and the city is looking to commit some dollars to help us with the infrastructure repairs that have to be done,” Vidas said.
Cobb concluded his remarks with a similar sentiment: “[The] Councilman is looking for a way to find some city funding on this, too.”
2401 Washington Ave. and Mt. Sinai loom large as big development projects in the works, as well. The first project, with SOSNA again as the local RCA, offered support for the project, with its zoning committee voting 6-0 in favor and the general membership supporting the project with a 38-7 vote.
The mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom units would currently have 57 car parking and 53 bike parking spaces. Green Construction LLC is the backing developer, with Harman Deutsch Architecture providing the building design.
However, North of Washington Avenue Coalition’s Madelein Shikomba, as well as Democratic committeeman Jonathan Purnell, have argued that it’s too large and that it would make parking too difficult in the area. Ahead of a Feb. 18 Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing, Green Construction attorney Hercules Grigos agreed to meet with the North of Washington Avenue Coalition to hear concerns.
As for Mt. Sinai, it’s a big mess. The massive century-old building has been vacant for nearly 20 years, and ownership has changed hands several times since 2000. Greenpointe Construction and Gagan Lakhmna had hoped to develop the space a dozen years ago with 38 town homes and nearly 200 apartments. But in a most recent and mystifying development, earlier this month, five days before the sale was to be finished in April ’14, Melissa Miller filed a zoning variance appeal “so she had a chance to be heard.” According to published reports, the local’s attorney, Zhen Jin, said his client never got the community notice because she was “initially upset when she found out such a large project had already been approved.” Just this month, she withdrew her appeal with a discontinuance, saying that after talking to neighbors and reviewing plans, she was “OK with” the development.
“The plan [now] is looking to demo the site and build townhomes on that property,” 1st District Councilman and Front Street and Snyder Avenue resident Mark Squilla said. “There’s a lot of interest in that site. We’ll get a great project out of there. The worst part is that it’s been left empty for so long, maybe because of the recession. Then banks stopped lending money, and it made it really difficult to get it up and running,”
Back when it was abandoned, “people were leaving. The population was actually decreasing. [And there was] no interest in building housing in that area. Since times have changed and Philadelphia’s become a hot place to live, it’s drawn interest from a lot of developers,” Squilla said.
He’s optimistic that, now that there are multiple interested parties, the community will benefit from having options. As for the plan before the current one that’s moving forward, “as soon as that died out, there were other people jumping in saying ‘If he can’t do it then I would like to do it’” the councilman said. “Now, the neighborhood has a choice.”
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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