Redevelopment for Francisville's largest vacant property,
a 1.5-acre site across from Francisville Rec Center where a paint factory once
stood, could move ahead after a years-long wait.
Last week the Philadelphia City Planning Commission voted
to recommend a bill to change the zoning for this triangle of land to CMX-3, a
very flexible designation that allows for the diverse mixture of housing types
planned by the Hankin Group. The Exton-based developer subscribes to New
Urbanist principles, like walkability and compact mixed-use neighborhoods, and
mainly builds in the far-flung western suburbs of Philadelphia.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation of the zoning
bill, introduced on behalf of Council President Darrell Clarke, is no guarantee
will move forward. But if the project is completed it will represent the
culmination of an almost ten-year effort by the Hankin Group to build on the
wedge-shaped property at Wylie, Cameron and 19th streets.
In a 2009 story on PlanPhilly about the site, the Hankin
Group’s interest in the property is already dated to “several years.” In spring
of that year the Office of Housing and Community Development issued a Request
for Proposals to redevelop the site. At the time Hankin planned a four-story
condo building with 60 units that would front on Wylie and 26 three-story
rowhouses were to go up behind it.
In 2010, the city sold the lot to Hankin with a deed that
requires all units built there to be earmarked for homeownership. The deed also
requires at least seven of the units be affordable to households making no more
than 150 percent of the area median income.
The parcel was zoned RMX-3 on Wylie to accommodate the
dense multi-family building with a commercial use, with the rest of the parcel
zoned RM-1 for the rowhouses.
But housing prices plummeted in the years after the 2008
economic downturn and Hankin backed off the project. Contacted for comment on
this story the company’s general counsel, Mike Malloy, declined to speak
extensively about the Francisville project.
“After years of delay caused primarily by the Great
Recession, we’re pleased to be working with the City on the rezoning for the
new plan,” Malloy said in an emailed statement.
Hankin’s new proposal, requiring the rezoning from
Clarke’s office, would offer 32 two- or three-bedroom condos and 34 one-bedroom
units. Pedestrian passageways lead from the street to the interior courtyard
and little balconies look out on the surrounding neighborhood.
“The previous version would have included an apartment
building and units in the back,” said central district planner Ian Litwin,
during his presentation of the zoning bill to the Planning Commission last
week. “We think this current proposal is much better as it mixes it [the
smaller units] throughout the site.”
Similar to the original 2009 plan, Hankin includes an
interior courtyard with parking and 3,000 square feet of commercial space at
the intersection of 19th and Wylie.
Hankin’s zoning lawyer, Matthew McClure, assured the
commission that the developer has been meeting with neighbors since 2009 and
received nothing but “positive results from that.”
The Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation
hasn’t yet reviewed the new plans, but director Penelope Giles says Hankin
offered a lot of outreach around the initial proposal, even offering her group
tours of the company’s projects in the Exton area.
“They provided a lot of insight and we learned a lot from
their walkable communities model,” says Giles. “We are very anxious for them to
present [their new plans], break ground, and move this project forward because
it's been way too long in the queue,” says Giles.
Giles also notes that Francisville NDC has a community
benefits agreement with Hankin dating back to the original proposal, with a
focus on investment in the Francisville just to the south. The group is interested in renegotiating
their arrangement with the developer to work out “more of a spread in terms of
benefits.”
McClure noted that the Hankin would need to go to the
community and the council president again to make some tweaks to the deed
restriction. Malloy said he couldn’t comment to PlanPhilly about the changes
they’d be requesting in the deed, only saying that they would preserve the
requirement that 100 percent of the units be designated for homeownership.
McClure also described Hankin as being “in constant
communication” with Clarke’s office too. The council president’s office had no
comment about the project or the rezoning bill.
The rezoning bill was up for a March 14 City Council
Rules Committee hearing, which was cancelled. A new date has been set for April
4.
Source: Plan
Philly
No comments:
Post a Comment