PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by allovertown

Is there some sort of restriction there because of Collins Park? The building on the other side of the park also had its façade replaced in the past five years and also remained a one story structure.

That whole area is solid CMX-5, but I don't know whether there may be any restrictions of height in any of the 7 zoning overlays that include that address: https://atlas.phila.gov/1701-05%20CHESTNUT%20ST/zoning

[Justin7]

Councilmanic prerogative makes city a bad landlord | Editorial

It is bad enough when neglect by private speculators keeps properties blighted for decades; when the city effectively does the same thing, it is a betrayal.

by The Editorial Board
Updated Apr 29, 2022

Over the years, this board has consistently railed against the practice of councilmanic prerogative and its wide-reaching consequences. A recent court hearing demonstrated yet another drawback to the policy: It has essentially turned city agencies into slumlords.

[...]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/edi...-20220429.html

[PHLtoNYC]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

^^^ It’s pretty amazing. Hard to say if it’s because things are fully open again or if the city and CCD stepped up their game in recent months. Maybe a mix of both.

Feels like there’s tulips everywhere. The ones in front of City Hall are stunning. Would be cool if this became like a theme for the city every year.

I think it would be a great idea. The Philadelphia region is America's Garden Capital, so why not show that off even more.

[mcgrath618]

Can we afford the Roosevelt Blvd. subway? Maybe now is the time

https://whyy.org/articles/roosevelt-...cture-funding/

[Busy Bee]

Yes.

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Raja

Fluff post, but good golly does the city look fan-f*cking-tastic today. Just got a new bike and did a quick tour and every stop was magical. Rittenhouse, Fitler, Schuylkill trail -- packed, happy vibes, three fantastic live music groups. Art Museum, Parkway -- throngs of people, two different live jazz bands, traffic controlling itself. Love Park, Dilworth -- more live music, chill vibes, gorgeous flowers, sparkling clean sidewalks. Society Hill, South Street, Queen Village -- lines of people outside shops, lots of smiles. I'm never leaving ever ever ever. LOL ask me again in five more hours once the sun goes down...

Yep! Absolutely agree. The city was absolutely radiating yesterday. Beautiful weather, streets packed. Rittenhouse once again was busier than I ever remember. Old City was packed with tourists. The city is looking really good again today, and has the added Broad Street Run.

[PhilliesPhan]

While running the Broad Street Run earlier, I confirmed two things:

1.) The Beury Building is being worked on (this didn’t necessarily need confirmation)

2.) The former CVS at Broad and Girard is gone for the most part! Only a small portion of the former site remains. That project is a go!

As a side note, both North and South Broad looked fantastic!

[Skintreesnail]

Definitely agree the city is looking good as of late. Nice vibes!

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

Can we afford the Roosevelt Blvd. subway? Maybe now is the time

https://whyy.org/articles/roosevelt-...cture-funding/

Sounds good to me. I know this probably isn't popular, but I wish septa would work on expanding the trolley/light rail infrastructure. It just seems to be more likely to happen/more flexible a solution as apposed to heavy rail/subway. Something like feeder lines above ground connecting to the two outer tracks in the bsl tunnel for local service and keeping the current bsl express. The expansion to the navy yard seems more likely as light rail as well. The bsl is a huge asset, it just seems like 4 tracks running down broad alone is a bit excessive. I know it was planned to run up ridge and the Blvd, just don't see money going towards digging tunnels for billions of dollars a mile.

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Yep! Absolutely agree. The city was absolutely radiating yesterday. Beautiful weather, streets packed. Rittenhouse once again was busier than I ever remember. Old City was packed with tourists. The city is looking really good again today, and has the added Broad Street Run.

You know how I know the city is back in full effect.


The Parking garage at 15th & Walnut across from &Pizza was packed at 11pm Last night.

I haven't seen it packed that late at night since 2019.

I can say that the city is back and we will have a crazy summer.

[arkitect13]

Originally Posted by Skintreesnail

I know this probably isn't popular, but I wish septa would work on expanding the trolley/light rail infrastructure. It just seems to be more likely to happen/more flexible a solution as apposed to heavy rail/subway. Something like feeder lines above ground connecting to the two outer tracks in the bsl tunnel for local service and keeping the current bsl express. The expansion to the navy yard seems more likely as light rail as well. The bsl is a huge asset, it just seems like 4 tracks running down broad alone is a bit excessive. I know it was planned to run up ridge and the Blvd, just don't see money going towards digging tunnels for billions of dollars a mile.

I agree here honestly. SEPTA does not have levels of funding anywhere near comparable to BART, L.A Metro, MTA etc. But I don't think light rail underground is the best. IMO the city NEEDS tobring back as many former trolley lines as possible, and try to seperateor give them priority over automobiles and other traffic. Its slightly cheaper and if implemented properly will bring a huge boost in ridership, and subsequently Revenue to expand to larger projects like the Roosevelt transit ideas, BSL navy yard extension, Region rail restoration etc

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by arkitect13

I agree here honestly. SEPTA does not have levels of funding anywhere near comparable to BART, L.A Metro, MTA etc. But I don't think light rail underground is the best. IMO the city NEEDS tobring back as many former trolley lines as possible, and try to seperateor give them priority over automobiles and other traffic. Its slightly cheaper and if implemented properly will bring a huge boost in ridership, and subsequently Revenue to expand to larger projects like the Roosevelt transit ideas, BSL navy yard extension, Region rail restoration etc

The issue with Philly streets is they are to narrow for Trolleys to work sufficiently, we have a city that is mostly one ways and/or two ways with vehicle traffic coming from both ways, people trying to double park to unload or stop right quick & we all know the trolleys cant go around.

Now if we had wider streets like lets say NYC or DC theres enough room for people to double park, deliveries to be made, bicyclists to ride & the trolley to pass by.

Thats why subways really should be all through our city however technically we do have rail, its just above ground & on a different system regional rail which is soon to be converted as we all know.

Now something I thought of before is that If we cant get any more subway lines added we should bring back some trolley lines that can co exist with the current system.

Erie Ave E/W

5th or 6th St N/S

19th st N/S

Washington Ave E/W

Synder Ave E/W

Lehigh E/W

BONUS

ROSEVELT BLVD LIGHT RAIL
DELAWARE AVE TROLLEY

Now this together with our train lines, bus routes, bike lanes & drive share options we have a city that is balanced with multiple modes of public & personal transportation and serving huge swaths of area with dense population.

Many routes for the trolley such as Lehigh & Erie are very wide & make it possible for cars & the trolley to not disturb each other.

Also Routes like Erie & 12th St still have the Trolley infrastructure & can cut some costs.

[arkitect13]

Originally Posted by TonyTone

Now something I thought of before is that If we cant get any more subway lines added we should bring back some trolley lines that can co exist with the current system.

Erie Ave E/W

5th or 6th St N/S

19th st N/S

Washington Ave E/W

Synder Ave E/W

Lehigh E/W

BONUS

ROSEVELT BLVD LIGHT RAIL
DELAWARE AVE TROLLEY

Now this together with our train lines, bus routes, bike lanes & drive share options we have a city that is balanced with multiple modes of public & personal transportation and serving huge swaths of area with dense population.

Many routes for the trolley such as Lehigh & Erie are very wide & make it possible for cars & the trolley to not disturb each other.

Also Routes like Erie & 12th St still have the Trolley infrastructure & can cut some costs.

This is kinda what I meant, although, in some places the streets trolleys run on can be pedestrianized, and used for deliveries, and public transit only. This way itnot only provides fantastic pedestrian space, but practical and efficient trolley running

[jaysb]

Originally Posted by Raja

Fluff post, but good golly does the city look fan-f*cking-tastic today. Just got a new bike and did a quick tour and every stop was magical. Rittenhouse, Fitler, Schuylkill trail -- packed, happy vibes, three fantastic live music groups. Art Museum, Parkway -- throngs of people, two different live jazz bands, traffic controlling itself. Love Park, Dilworth -- more live music, chill vibes, gorgeous flowers, sparkling clean sidewalks. Society Hill, South Street, Queen Village -- lines of people outside shops, lots of smiles. I'm never leaving ever ever ever. LOL ask me again in five more hours once the sun goes down...

The New Orleans style jazz band at Rittenhouse Saturday was awesome. Sadly was in a rush to get to Helium and couldn't linger.
Agree 100%, nothing like the first spring weekends, the energy is palpable

[Mikieman]

20220502_094133 by , on Flickr

The amount of development on Chestnut Street is insane, barriers going up today at the Penn site at 34th St. The following either under construction/demo:

46th and Chestnut-W Catholic site, elevator shafts going up
4315 Chest ut, demo compete, construction starting
43rd and Chestnut-Strip mall gone, construction starting
4245 Chestnut, demo ongoing
42nd and Chestnut, Construction, wall shoring
And finally looks like 2nd tower crane imminent at the Standard

[chimpskibot]

https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/...0-homes-112842

Anyone else see this article? I think this is the right idea to affordable housing instead of a market-based approach. However, this is the worst way of going about it. SFH should be outlawed in large parts of this city especially near transit. And at current input costs it would make more sense to create 4/6 flat condos like Chicago than houses which will most likely also cost more in the long-term as well.

The city of Philadelphia has finally put up its own funding to start using its portfolio of vacant land for affordable housing production.

On Thursday, multiple city officials and members of Philadelphia City Council gathered at an empty lot in West Philadelphia to announce the launch of Turn The Key, the city's new program to develop affordable, single-family homes for first-time buyers, Council President Darrell Clarke's office announced. By turning over land virtually free to private developers who respond to requests for proposals, Turn The Key is projected to create 1,000 new single-family homes for households making, at most, 80% of the area median income.

Houses built through the program will have three bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms, be energy efficient and cost no more than $250K, the announcement stated. Mortgage payments are not to exceed $1,200 per month, which is where the city's funding will come into play — $7M to $8M initially, to come out of the $400M Neighborhood Preservation Initiative plan passed by council in 2020, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

City funding will go toward offering what it termed soft loans of up to $75K, depending on household income, to offset down payment and closing cost expenses, the announcement stated. Homeowners who take out such loans would be adding a second mortgage to their house, though it is designed to be forgiven gradually — by the end of a standard 30-year mortgage, the soft loan would be completely forgiven.

The process of identifying and disposing of the parcels will be the shared responsibility of the Department of Planning and Development and the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp., which absorbed the Philadelphia Land Bank and the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority in 2019. Since the beginning of this year, RFPs for dozens of lots have already been posted to the PHDC website.

Turn The Key is one of several ways in which PHDC and the city have attempted to leverage vacant, city-owned lots to benefit the city. A law passed in early 2020 unlocked the potential for such lots to be disposed of for nominal fees to developers who promise to keep at least 51% of residences on-site affordable. A program launched last year promised to make empty lots available for participants in its Minority Developer Program.

If Turn The Key works as intended, it will break a years-long streak of policies from council that largely encouraged affordable housing through regulation rather than economic support, which private developers have called everything from misguided to actively hostile.

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

^^^ It’s pretty amazing. Hard to say if it’s because things are fully open again or if the city and CCD stepped up their game in recent months. Maybe a mix of both.

Feels like there’s tulips everywhere. The ones in front of City Hall are stunning. Would be cool if this became like a theme for the city every year.

Dilworth Tulips are there every year (since the park renovation). Worth a visit if you haven't seen them, just stunning.

[PhilliesPhan]

Is 501 N Christopher Columbus Boulevard part of the large project at Delaware and Spring Garden? If so, then the project is about to get even larger:

ZP-2022-001459
May 2, 2022
501 N CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BLVD, Philadelphia, PA 19123-4240
CITY OF PHILA, DEPT OF PUBLIC PROP 1
For an increase in the GFA to a previously approved project, approved at ZP-2020-001850. The GSF is being increased from 603,158 to a new 683,783, as shown on the attached revised plans. Other comprehensive amendments were submitted under the original permit number.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan

Is 501 N Christopher Columbus Boulevard part of the large project at Delaware and Spring Garden? If so, then the project is about to get even larger:

This is the Festival Pier redevelopment. Awesome!

[iheartphilly]

Having the anticipated new park from the capped I-95 and the Delaware River Trail is a big positive in a QOL matter. As we can see this has set off and/or jump started developments along the Delaware River. This is gonna be great to see what is next in the coming years!

[Mayormccheese]

Originally Posted by TonyTone

The issue with Philly streets is they are to narrow for Trolleys to work sufficiently, we have a city that is mostly one ways and/or two ways with vehicle traffic coming from both ways, people trying to double park to unload or stop right quick & we all know the trolleys cant go around.

Now if we had wider streets like lets say NYC or DC theres enough room for people to double park, deliveries to be made, bicyclists to ride & the trolley to pass by.

Thats why subways really should be all through our city however technically we do have rail, its just above ground & on a different system regional rail which is soon to be converted as we all know.

Now something I thought of before is that If we cant get any more subway lines added we should bring back some trolley lines that can co exist with the current system.

Erie Ave E/W

5th or 6th St N/S

19th st N/S

Washington Ave E/W

Synder Ave E/W

Lehigh E/W

BONUS

ROSEVELT BLVD LIGHT RAIL
DELAWARE AVE TROLLEY

Now this together with our train lines, bus routes, bike lanes & drive share options we have a city that is balanced with multiple modes of public & personal transportation and serving huge swaths of area with dense population.

Many routes for the trolley such as Lehigh & Erie are very wide & make it possible for cars & the trolley to not disturb each other.

Also Routes like Erie & 12th St still have the Trolley infrastructure & can cut some costs.

What is happening soon with septa’s regional rail?