The Frankford Civic Association meeting, which had been delayed by inclement weather, was held last Thursday night at Aria Health. There was a fairly good crowd, with some new faces, considering the 25 degree temperature outside.
First off was Nick Esposito, project manager for Portfolio Associates who will be making a presentation on the proposed improvements to Womrath Park in regard
Nick Esposito
to storm water management. We posted information about the upcoming meeting last week. You can read that post here.
Toby Biddle
Next, Toby Biddle spoke seeking support for a zoning variance for the legalization of the conversion of 1837 Harrison Street to a duplex. He is a real estate investor who bought the property at sheriff sale and then found out it had been illegally converted from a single family home. The civic raised several questions about his intended use of the property to determine whether Mr. Biddle was looking toward making it a rooming house. Biddle says he intends to manage the property as a duplex and nothing more.
The most significant discussion of the night centered around the long rumored move by the Bridge into Frankford. Barry Howell, President of the Northwood Civic Association spoke about discussion they have had with the management of the Bridge. Also attending was Kate Clarke, president of the Juniata Park Civic Association.
1100 block of Adams Avenue at Unity
The Bridge is being forced to move from their present Fox Chase location by the owners of the property who have other needs for it. The owners of the vacant land in the 1100 block of Adams Avenue (near Unity and Adams) are looking to develop the land which is zoned industrial. The Bridge is seeking support from the community to move into a new building to be built on that site.
The discussion raised these issues:
- The Bridge offers a good quality program
- It is not a methadone treatment program
- The community would like to see a better use for the property
- Once the Bridge moves in they may change the services that are offered
- What is they become another drug treatment facility
- The community can get provisos as part of the approval process
- Once they are in the community will have no control over what they do
- Nobody will want to develop new businesses near the facility
- NET on Bridge Street is looking for a new location so it could be worse
- Doesn’t Frankford have enough of these services, why not some other location
There will be a presentation with full details of the Bridge proposal at the Northwood Civic Association meeting on Tuesday, February 15th. The next meeting of the Frankford Civic will be on March 3rd.
I missed the Frankford Civic meeting last week but I knew both NEastPhilly and John Loftus of the Northeast Times would have it covered. You can read both accounts linked above. Sounds like it was a good meeting with an energetic exchange of opinions. The issue is whether the Civic will support the application by the Bridge for a variance so they can move onto that property on Adams Avenue.
