We have a new link posted over under Frankford Links. Pennsylvania Environmental Council provides some information on the TOD (Transit Oriented Development) concept.
Category: News
Councilman Dan Savage
This week’s Northeast Times brings us an article on Dan Savage’s accomplishment’s during his time in office. It does a better job than I could in listing them and I have to admit I did not know about all of the things noted in the story.
The most important thing he has given Frankford is some long needed attention. He clearly sees Frankford as important to the health of the Northeast and has worked hard to get some things done.
From the very visible things like the Deni Playground and derelict building demolition to the less exciting but very important Transit-Oriented Development zoning changes. So far he has introduced or co-sponsored 38 bills in City Council and he has not left office yet. I’m sure we will be hearing from Dan in the future.
Now let’s hope Maria Quinones-Sanchez hits the deck running and keep the momentum going.
Frankford Real Estate Trend
Our friends at the Cartographic Modeling Lab at the U of Penn have updated the neighborhoodBase with sales data from 2006. We all know that 2006 was not a terrific year but Frankford did not do all that bad.
The median sales price of properties sold in 2006 was up $7,000 over 2005 ($72,000 versus $65,000). At the same time the median price for the city overall dropped from $86,000 to $81,000. This is using data for Frankford defined by the U of Penn which can be found on the neighborhoodBase web site.
If you focus on zip code 19124 the result was even more impressive. The 2005 median price was $72,500 which increased in 2006 to $79,000.
Not everyone will see this as good news. With the change in real estate valuation on the horizon this may not be the best time to have your home value increase. But the increase we are seeing is at best the market catching up to the fact we all know, that this is a good place to live and has tremendous potential for the future.
The instability of oil prices will likely give pause to those thinking of moving far out of the city to be locked into a long commute to work. Where better to situate yourself than at a major transportation hub within the city.
Where better then Frankford.
“Illegal” meeting votes out president of East Frankford Civic Assoc.
This article from the Northeast Times summarizes the proceedings.
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)
The article in the Northeast Times this week made reference to a bill submitted by council people Savage, Krajewski and DiCicco. Our friends at Hallwatch.org have provided a link to the entire text of the bill.
The bill first defines Transit-Oriented Development as “encourages mixed-use, higher-density development near transit stations.” It then goes on to enumerate very detailed changes to the zoning code to implement this type of development.
The second part of the bill designates Frankford Avenue from Cheltenham Avenue to the Frankford Creek as the Frankford Transit-Oriented Development District.
It is not extremely long and with some patience you can make some sense of it, so take a look.
You might also take a look at this wikipedia entry and this site to for some additional information.
