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Zoning throwdown in Norris Square pits councilwoman against development group
Maria Quinones-Sanchez says she's responding to concerns from neighbors about increasingly dense development, but one community group is taking it very personally.
Zoning throwdown in Norris Square pits councilwoman against development group
For years, Norris Square Civic Association has been working on a plan to redevelop the old St. Boniface church site at Hancock and Diamond Streets into co-op housing, a community center, a school and daycare. Now, the group sees a proposal by district Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sánchez to remap the residential properties in the area, from York to Berks and Second to Front streets, as the death-knell of a project that has $5 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants, $5 million in state funding and $1 million in sunk design costs. Which was the reason, presumably, that NSCA representatives were outside a zoning meeting Monday night handing out these fliers:
The allegations — that the remapping will bring gentrification, and that it will prevent tear families apart by making current living situations illegal — are pretty over the top. Sánchez said she just wanted to ease an increasingly tight parking situation, prevent apartment buildings from rising unchecked through the use of by-right development afforded by the current zoning designation and make sure residents have a say. She says she's responding to residents' concerns about a growing number of conversions from single to multifamily housing have increased density in the area; the NSCA is behind many such conversions.
"It's important to get this in now," Sanchez told community members, because as the new zoning code takes effect in August the current zoning designation will become even more liberal. She expects the zoning overlay could eventually extend to Lehigh Avenue. Martin Gregorski of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission said the area was due to be remapped anyway, when the new Lower North District Plan is done, probably next year.
The NSCA and its supporters were livid. Patricia DeCarlo, executive director, says the St. Boniface development has been in the works since 2008, that its funding could now "be in jeopardy," she said. "I have to ask, 'What is the motivation all of a sudden?'"
There followed shouting and allegations in two languages. A man was ejected after declaring the councilwoman's "panties" to be in a bunch; former candidate for sheriff Cheri Honkala stood up and said he was "outside being arrested for speaking his mind"; and Sanchez promised not to have him processed. She said she wasn't trying to torpedo St. Boniface, but "the fact is that [federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program] money could have allowed pat to buy every tax-delinquent property in this area and fix it. [NSCA] made the choice to put it at St. Boniface.... This money is going to go down the tubes because there was a choice that was made about how it would be spent."
Sanchez says many neighbors are worried about the density of the proposed St. Boniface redevelopment, which could bring in, she estimates, 1,000 people per day to the site. "You overpopulate a small parcel: the footprint is not that big. And $5 million spread out along the square and the blocks around it could do some really good stuff. That could be a great gateway to the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, other residents are worried about not getting enough say in zoning, particularly when it comes to a Women's Community Revitalization Project and NSCA development at Front and Berks that could bring 24 units of affordable housing. The development almost went to the Zoning Board of Adjustments today without a zoning hearing, and it took last-ditch scrambling by the Fishtown Neighbors Assocation and other community groups to get a continuance. (Incidentally, the NSCA had been lobbying the other groups for the right to hold the zoning meeting itself, which might appear like a conflict of interest.)
"We already have low income projects in this neighborhood how many do we need?" neighborhood resident Carmen Bolden said. "We can't let the fact that they can get cheap land be an excuse for them to expand in this neighborhood. The reason they can't expand anywhere else is because they're not allowed."
Sanchez is plain wrong. Putting 15 units on that parcel doesn't overpopulate. All it does is put affordable housing too close to her own house. Her opposition is personal. All I saw at that meeting were a lot of confused people, not a group supporting her. She stated clearly that she is proposing this zoning change to block the project. It's not about the zoning being better for the area, it's about this project not being built on her block. She didn't asnwer when asked why this particular area was chosen and why it didn't include Philip Street in particular. Personally I'd rather not see a blighted vacant dangerous structure instead of a nicely built residential building with landscaping and private parking.— emptycan
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