Three groups of neighbors in the area surrounding 8th and
Lombard streets in Washington Square West are staunchly opposed to a proposal
that would see Society Hill Playhouse and a two-story garage across the street
torn down and replaced with condominiums.
Toll Brothers, the Horsham-based development company, has
been in talks with neighbors about the project since the spring. On Tuesday
night, Toll presented a revised version of the proposal to Washington Square
West Civic Association, which is considering whether to support the developer’s
pursuit of a City Council bill rezoning the property. Virtually everyone in
attendance at the meeting was outright opposed to the development, saying it
would be too tall and doesn’t respect the character of the neighborhood.
Toll has scaled its original proposal down from a maximum
height of 60 feet with 24 units and 16 parking spaces to a maximum of 51 feet
tall with 17 units and 18 parking spaces. Brian Emmons, a Toll Brothers vice
president, encouraged residents at Tuesday’s meeting to go look at the
company’s nearby construction project, 410 at Society Hill on Headhouse Square,
for comparison.
“Our buyers are going to be spending $500,000 to $1
million on these homes,” Emmons said. “And these folks are just like you.”
Neighbors still aren’t having it—at least the group that
showed up for the meeting on Tuesday. The properties in question are zoned
RM-1, a low-density multifamily classification with a 38-foot height limit.
Most neighbors said they would like to see townhomes built there, if anything.
Residents who oppose the project have organized
themselves into three groups which have been meeting with Toll Brothers
separately: those who live on the 700 block of Rodman Street, the 700 block of
Bradford Alley, and residents of Lombard Mews on the west side of 8th Street.
The latter group has hired an attorney.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Toll Brothers also took the opportunity Tuesday night to
reveal that, during its due diligence, it has discovered petroleum
contamination underneath the garage property on the west side of 8th Street.
The company contracted with Tri-State Environmental to investigate the
conditions at the site. A representative of the company said on Tuesday that
the assessment showed a number of chemicals were present at the site, at levels
that exceed statewide health standards. The contamination is substantial, said
the representative, but neither Tri-State nor Toll Brothers was able to say how
harmful it might be. The garage previously featured drive-in gas service.
Toll Brothers said it has the capacity to remediate the
site but wouldn’t do so before purchasing the property. That purchase would be
contingent on having zoning for the development approved. Contamination has not
been found beneath Society Hill Playhouse, the company said.
Given the environmental issues, Toll Brothers said that
if a zoning change was adopted in Council, it would start work on the Society
Hill Playhouse site next summer and be finished within a year. Deconstruction
of the garage across the street, remediation, and development of the project on
that side would take around two and a half years, Emmons said.
Paul Boni, the attorney representing Lombard Mews
residents, said that the mention of the environmental issues from Toll Brothers
felt like a threat to coerce neighbors into supporting the project lest the
contamination go unchecked. He said the property’s current owner, Frederick
Simeone of the Simeone
Foundation, has the means to clean up the site and should be held
responsible for doing so.
“When I hear it, I know you don’t mean it as a threat,
but it sounds like a threat,” Boni said.
PROSPECTS UNCERTAIN
Councilman Squilla told PlanPhilly late last month that
he was waiting on negotiations between Toll Brothers and neighbors to shake out
before deciding whether to introduce rezoning legislation. (Toll has hired lobbyist and former Councilman Frank DiCicco,
Squilla's predecessor, as a consultant on the project.)
Washington Square West Civic Association has yet to take
a formal position on the project. There was no vote at Tuesday’s meeting, but
the board went into a private session after the public meeting adjourned, and
Judy Applebaum, a board member who led the meeting, said the group would report
the neighbors’ position to Councilman Squilla.
Paul Boni stood toward the end of the meeting to convey
his clients’ opposition to the project and to denounce the process of
legislative rezoning for specific projects. He said that if Toll Brothers wants
to build something the zoning code doesn’t allow it should have to make its
case and face opposed neighbors at the Zoning Board of Adjustment. (Residents
can testify at City Council when a zoning bill is up for adoption, but
developers don’t have to prove they have a hardship there.) Boni, who is
currently suing the city and Councilman Squilla for spot zoning in a case
related to developer Michael Samschick’s Canal Street North project, questioned
why the civic association would support legislative rezoning.
“Why would you not only support it but support it in a
way that deprives [residents] of their right to oppose it at the zoning board?”
he asked.
Society Hill Playhouse, which has been putting on shows since
the late 1950s, also has yet to make any announcements about a possible
closure. Deen Kogan, who started the playhouse with her husband, Jay, a former
assistant L&I Commissioner who died in the early 1990s, told PlanPhilly last
month that she didn’t have any information to share about the playhouse closing
or the development that might take its place.
Source: PlanPhilly
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