September Zoning Committee Meeting

West Mt. Airy Neighbors Zoning Committee Meeting: Wednesday, 9/4/2024 @ 7:00 PM 

Location: Summit Presbyterian Church, 6757 Greene St.(corner of Westview) 2^ndFloor Parlor, Philadelphia, PA 19119 – enter on Greene St.

There are two properties/projects on the agenda for this meeting. Additional details are available here.

Property 1: 532 W. Ellet St.

Appeal to Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment: Application No. ZP-2022-007082
Zoning Board of Adjustment Calendar No. MI-2022-007585

The appeal requests to use the property for two-family household living in an existing structure.

The Zoning Classification for the property is RSA-3 (Single-Family Residential)

This application to the Department of Licenses and Inspections was REFUSED because two-
family household living is prohibited in the RSA-3 single family residential zoning district.

Property 2: 309-321 W. Mt Pleasant Avenue

Project Description: A 5-story commercial mixed-use building with a cellar to be located on a property designated by Zoning District CMX-2 by right. The cellar will comprise of a fitness room, storage, and building support spaces. The ground floor will comprise of retail space, mailboxes, a package room, a bicycle storage room, a residential lobby, and building support spaces. The second through fifth floors will comprise of 66 residential studio, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom apartments, 7 of which will be maintained as low-income affordable units. The roof will comprise of an outdoor roof deck accessible to tenants only.

Pelham Trust Building Historical Designation Hearing

The Pelham Trust building, most recently Santander Bank, is ripe for redevelopment. Apparently, it is currently unprotected by historical designation. Please read the email below for details of how to share your opinion of the relative importance of this historical building.

ACTION NEEDED: The former Pelham Trust Company at 6740 Germantown Avenue will be up for designation at the next meeting of the Philadelphia Historical Commission on 6/10/22 (meeting details below) Without designation, this impressive banking house, situated on a large lot and zoned for an apartment house, could be demolished with no discussion. Please call in to the Philadelphia Historical Commission meeting next Friday or send an email of support (details below). Community input is critical!

The Pelham Trust is listed as Significant in the Germantown Avenue Historic District, which is on the National Register and a National Historic Landmark, but not protected by the city. The Pelham Trust was nominated pro bono by the Keeping Society of Philadelphia. Please consider making a contribution at www.KeepingPhiladelphia.org

To offer written comments prior to the meeting, send an email to preservation@phila.gov. Written comments received before Thursday, June 9 at 12:00 noon will be forwarded to the Commission members.

The nomination for the Pelham Trust is below:

https://www.phila.gov/media/20220406083714/6740-Germantown-Ave-nomination.pdf

The details of the meeting are below:

Philadelphia Historical Commission
Meeting of Friday, June 10, 2022
9:00 AM | Remote Meeting on Zoom Webinar

Agenda: https://www.phila.gov/media/20220603105454/Historical-Comm-agenda-20220610.pdf

The Historical Commission will hold its June 10, 2022 meeting remotely using the Zoom Webinar platform. You can watch/listen and speak during the live meetings using your computer, tablet, or smartphone on Zoom. You can listen and speak during the live meetings on your telephone.

The meeting agenda, applications, nomination materials, and recent meeting minutes are available on the Historical Commission’s Public Meetings page. The Historical Commission will consider adopting the minutes of its most recent meeting at the upcoming meeting. The advisory committee minutes are not formally adopted, but are considered drafts until reviewed by the Historical Commission at the meeting.

To watch the meeting live on Zoom using your computer, tablet, or smartphone, click on the following link on June 10.

Link: https://bit.ly/phcjun10
Meeting Password: 242654

To listen to the meeting live on the telephone, call this number on June 10.

Telephone Number: 1-301-715-8592
Meeting ID: 879 2090 6096 #
Participant ID: #
Meeting Password: 242654

After the meeting, you can watch a recording of the meeting (and other earlier meetings) on the Recordings page of the Historical Commission’s website.

Happy Pride Month!

WMAN is committed to actively working to foster programs and spaces to support and celebrate the gender and sexual diversity in our community.

If you’re looking to find ways to celebrate Pride, please see the links below, or if you’d like to share a particular Pride Event in our newsletter, please email us @westmtairyneighbors@gmail.com.

The Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs kicks off Pride Month in Philadelphia by hoisting the rainbow flag at City Hall, where it will fly all month long alongside state and city flags. Speakers and live music accompany the ceremony. Friday, June 3, noon.
Northeast apron of City Hall, 1400 JFK Boulevard.

https://www.phlpridecollective.org/

https://www.inquirer.com/philly-tips/pride-events-philadelphia-2022.html

https://www.thrillist.com/events/philadelphia/philly-lgbtq-pride-month-events https://www.trentonian.com/2022/05/31/pride-month-events-around-the-region/

Vote for Mount Airy Baseball Player as Big 10 Player of the Year!

Chris ” Bubba” Alleyne played Mount Airy Baseball for six years, including several seasons of STARS tournament teams. He graduated from Springside Chestnut Hill and is now a senior outfielder batting .354 at the University of Maryland. Chris is a semi-finalist for Big 10 Player of the Year award.

Please take a minute to read his profile and vote for him (early and often is encouraged!). Share the link so we can help Chris win!

https://www.usabaseball.com/golden-spikes-award/nominees/2022

Simple Statement of Solidarity with Ukraine: Flower Power!

With the world as crazy as it is, we can all use small reminders of how lucky we are to live in our beautiful, relatively safe community of West Mt. Airy, especially in light of the atrocities taking place in Ukraine. Will you join WMAN in our effort to cover Mt. Airy in sunflowers to show our solidarity with the Ukrainian people, while adding a little more brightness and beauty to our community? Knowing that the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower, our generous neighbors at Germantown Kitchen Garden and Primex Garden Center have donated thousands of sunflower seeds to our effort. We encourage individuals and businesses to pick up seeds from 258 W. Gorgas Lane or from FarmerJawn at 6730 Germantown Avenue. We look forward to seeing our community blanketed in hues of yellow!

Keep Mt. Airy Green

WMAN is committed to preserving and growing Mt. Airy’s lush tree canopy. That means planting new trees and replacing those that are aging. It also means working hard for tree equity – planting trees on less shady blocks. It takes all of us, working together, and planting it forward to KEEP MT AIRY GREEN.

Trees give us so much!! Better health, shade for cooler temperatures – especially as the earth gets hotter, home for birds and animals, storm water management and flood reduction, places for children to play, better mental health. Trees also reduce crime and increase property values.

It’s up to us to re-tree all of Mt. Airy.

Plant it Forward to Keep Mt. Airy Green.

Don’t have space for another tree? Want to be part of the Tree Equity Movement? Just generally love trees? 

Donate to our local shading and greening efforts. Donate to our free yard tree giveaway fund which targets sections of our neighborhood with a sparse tree canopy and neighbors who might not otherwise be able to purchase a tree. In this way, you help us keep Mt. Airy the green & shady oasis we know and love. Your support allows for tree equity within the community. By “planting it forward” you can increase the shade on blocks in most need and maintain shade of aging tree-lined blocks.

Our goal is to raise $5,000 to giveaway 500 trees each year. Over 5 years, we will plant 2,500 new trees – significantly increasing shade, supporting local wildlife, and keeping Mt. Airy the urban oasis we all love.

Donate Now for our Tree Giveaway

Apply for a free street tree or become a Tree Tender:

• Plant a Street Tree: It’s free! You just have to apply. You can apply anytime during the year – just be mindful that the deadline for applications for Spring planting is November 19th.

          CLICK HERE to learn more and to apply:- https://treephilly.org/street-trees/

                     FAQs

• Become a Tree Tender – tree tenders help plant street trees and are vital to the efforts to plant more trees. Sign up: https://phsonline.org/programs/tree-programs/get-involved
• Volunteer: Join our Environmental Committee to help our climate justice efforts. We need people with all kinds of skills – fundraising, supportive roles for planting day, spreading the word (marketing, canvassing, writing articles)

Fill out this form to volunteer:

[wc_woo_donation id=”2285″]

Courtesy of PHS

Christmas Tree Recycling

January 2, 2022 12:30 – 3:30 PM at Upsala House

Bring your Christmas tree to Historic Upsala House, 6430 Germantown Avenue, on January 2, any time between 12:30 and 3:30 PM to be recycled.

• All decorations must be removed from trees
• Minimum $5 donation per tree
• Please wear a mask and remain 6 feet apart

This is jointly presented by West Mt Airy Neighbors and East Mt Airy Neighbors.

Volunteers needed to assist that afternoon! Please sign up at volunteersignup.org/DLQTB.

Please Support Our Annual Appeal

Dear Neighbors,

My family and I moved back to Philly three years ago after fifteen years of living in Los Angeles. There was no question in our minds about what part of the city we’d live in because Mt. Airy has always been THE place we imagined ourselves. This diverse, socially conscious, civic minded, engaging, welcoming community offers what few other neighborhoods can, all nestled just a quick bike ride from the Wissahickon, a twenty-minute train ride from downtown, with a bustling business and cultural core on Germantown Avenue.  I know that you know all this because you choose to live here too.

What you may or may not know as intimately is that the foundation of our neighborhood is built on an incredibly rich history, with purposeful, directed actions by a broad range of individuals and community groups, few more effective and influential than West Mount Airy Neighbors.  WMAN was founded 68 years ago to create and sustain West Mt. Airy as a racially integrated community and remains a community-based volunteer organization committed to preserving and enhancing the quality of life here. At its inception, the founders drafted a statement beginning with: “This We Believe About Our Neighborhood,” and although those core beliefs haven’t changed substantively over the years, WMAN’s vision, cohesion and relevance are ripe for rethinking and renewal.  We have an energized, committed new president, a Board of invested community members with a wide, deep pool of talent and knowledge, and well thought out, exciting plans for the future.

Please take a few minutes to ask yourself the important question, what DO YOU believe about our neighborhood? And then help us co-create the future of West Mt. Airy together by becoming a new member, renewing your membership, donating  https://wman.net/, joining a committee, attending an event, joining the Board, or just subscribing to our mailing list.

Checks can be mailed to WMAN, 6703 Germantown Ave., Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19119

We know that times have been difficult, and that we are all still reeling from the past few years, but that’s all the more reason to invest your time, energy, and maybe even a few bucks in our largest neighborhood organization.  While we may not have been on your radar, I guarantee that we will be soon.  As our emerging vision comes to life, be on the lookout for us and ways to get involved, especially in some of our current efforts:

Jo Gasiewski Winter
Vice President, Membership Development
West Mt Airy Neighbors

For more information or to join one of our initiatives, please contact us at: wman@wman.net. WMAN is a nonprofit, member supported organization whose mission is to support the flourishing of our social fabric in all its diversity, and to help safeguard and steward the transformations of our beloved physical and natural environments.

Philly Leaf Recycling

A message from the Philadelphia Streets Department

2021 Philly Leaf Recycling Program
Northwest Philly Collection Dates Dec 6th – 17th
(Additional dates for Drop Off – See below for more detail)

The Streets Department’s 2021 Philly Leaf Recycling Program begins on Monday, November 8 and runs through Saturday, December 18. The program is one of several services provided by the Streets Department to honor the City’s on-going commitment to recycling by helping to reduce the amount of materials that reach the waste stream.

Bagged leaf drop-off: During the six-week program, bagged leaf drop-off will be offered city-wide on the following Saturdays only at 13 locations from 9a-3p.

• • November 20
  • December 4
  • December 11
  • December 18

A designated fleet of sanitation compactors will be positioned at the 13 citywide locations to accept the bagged leaves. Crews are assigned to accept ONLY bagged leaves as part of the program. No household trash will be accepted.

Mechanical leaf collection will be provided as a supplement in areas known to have a heavy accumulation of leaves. The mechanical leaf collection operation will include leaf blowers, mechanical sweepers, and leaf loaders. Mechanical leaf collection crews will concentrate their efforts in designated boundaries each week, following a strategic schedule to maximize efficiency and productivity.

Follow these tips for bagged leaf collection:

• Bagged leaves will only be accepted in biodegradable paper bags. These bags can be processed for recycling along with the leaves. This reduces contamination in the recycling process.
• Do not mix trash or other recyclable materials with bagged leaves. This contaminates leaves and makes them unfit for recycling purposes.
• Use as many bags as needed, maximum 40 lbs. each.
• Bags may be purchased at most hardware stores. Bags are not provided by the Streets Department.
• Bagged leaves may also be taken to any of the Sanitation Convenience Centers, Monday through Saturday from 8a-6p.
• Leaves set out curbside, either in bags or containers, will be collected as trash, not recycling.

Follow these tips for mechanical leaf collection:

• To find out if/when your block is scheduled for mechanical collection visit phila.gov/leaf-recycling.

• Check neighborhood newspaper for articles or ads
• All leaves should be raked and ready for collection by 7:00 AM the day of mechanical collection. Rake leaves into the street by the curb’s edge (piling is not necessary). 
• If possible, move your vehicle to an off-street parking location on your scheduled collection day, so crews can remove leaves along the curb line. 
• Residents in mechanical areas can also drop off bagged leaves.  
• Mechanical collection crews will visit routes only once. Residents are urged to sweep and bag any remaining leaves and set out for collection on trash day or take to any bagged drop-off locations or Sanitation Convenience Center.

There will be no collection of leaves on City holidays. During this six-week program, leaves will be collected for composting purposes, like, fertilizing gardens and nourishing trees. For more information, residents can visit www.phila.gov/leaf-recycling or call 311.

Weekly Mechanical Cleaning Schedule below.

Week # 1: November 8 – 12 

(Oak Lane and Frankford)

Monday, November 8

• 3^rd Street to 8^th Street, from Godfrey Avenue to 65^th Avenue
• 8^th Street to Broad Street, from Godfrey Avenue to 65^th Avenue

Tuesday, November 9

• 3^rd Street to 8^th Street, from 65^th Avenue to Cheltenham Avenue
• 8^th Street to Broad Street, from 65^th Avenue to Cheltenham Avenue

Wednesday, November 10

• Roosevelt Blvd to Horrocks Street, from Arrott Street to Oxford Avenue

Thursday, November 11

VETERANS DAY – NO COLLECTIONS 

Friday, November 12 

• Horrocks Street to Penn Street, from Parrott Street to Oxford Avenue

Week # 2: November 15 – 19 

(West Philadelphia)

Monday, November 15

• 72^nd to 66^th Streets, from Malvern Avenue to City Avenue
• 66^th to 63^rd Streets, from Malvern Avenue to City Avenue

Tuesday, November 16 

• 63^rd to 58^th Streets, from Upland Way to City Avenue
• 58^th to 54^th Streets, from Upland Way to City Avenue

Wednesday, November 17 

• Belmont Avenue to Lenape Road, from City Avenue to Sorrento Street & Conshohocken Avenue
• Ford Road to Conshohocken Avenue, from Monument Road to Falls Road

Thursday, November 18

• 54^th Street to 49^th Street, from Wynnefield Avenue to City Avenue
• Wynnefield Avenue to Columbia Avenue, from 54^th Street to Parkside Avenue

Friday, November 19

• 38^th to 52^nd Streets from Baltimore Avenue to Spruce Street

(South Philadelphia)

Friday, November 19

• • Moyamensing Avenue, from 20^th Street to Oregon Avenue
  • 17^th to 22^nd Street from Oregon Avenue to Ritner Street

Week # 3: November 22 – 26 

(Northeast)

Monday, November 22

• Worthington Road to County Line Road, from Byberry Road to County Line Road

Tuesday, November 23 

• Verree Road to Bustleton Avenue, from Grant Avenue to Morefield Road

Wednesday, November 24 

• Morefield Avenue to Welsh Road, from Verree Road to Pine Road

Thursday, November 25 
HOLIDAY – THANKSGIVING

 Friday, November 26 

• Welsh Road to Bloomfield Avenue, from Verree Road to Pine Road 
  

Week # 4: November 29 – December 3
(Northeast)

Monday, November 29

• Verree Road to Krewstown Road, from Rising Sun Avenue to Grant Avenue
• Verree Road to Rising Sun Avenue, from Susquehanna Avenue to Rhawn Street 

 Tuesday, November 30 

• Oxford Avenue to Pennway Avenue, from Cottman Avenue to Magee Street
• Oxford Avenue to City Limits, from Cottman Avenue to Rhawn Street

Wednesday, December 1 

• Rhawn Street to Welsh Road, from Holmes Avenue to Rowland Avenue

Thursday, December 2 

• Bustleton Avenue to Roosevelt Boulevard, from Grant Avenue to Lott Street
• Orchard Lane to Clarendon Road, from Knights Road to Crestmont Road

Friday, December 3 

• Frankford Avenue to State Road, from Grant Avenue to Linden Avenue

Week # 5: December 6 – 10 

(Northwest)

Monday, December 6 

• Schoolhouse Lane to Queen Lane, from Henry Avenue to Wissahickon Avenue
• Schoolhouse Lane to Indian Queen Lane, from Ridge Avenue to Henry Avenue

Tuesday, December 7 

• Green Lane to Summit Avenue, from Henry Avenue to Ridge Avenue
• Ridge Avenue to River Road, from Wigard Avenue to Port Royal Road

Wednesday, December 8 

• Wissahickon Creek to Ridge Avenue, from Summit Avenue to Montgomery County Line

Thursday, December 9 

• Bells Mills Road to Willow Grove Avenue, from Germantown Avenue to Wissahickon Creek

Friday, December 10 

• Stenton Avenue to Germantown Avenue, from Cresheim Valley Road to Northwestern Avenue

Week # 6: December 13 – 17 

(Northwest)

Monday, December 13

• Willow Grove Avenue to Mermaid Lane, from Germantown Avenue to Wissahickon Creek
• Lincoln Drive to Green Lane, from Allens Lane to Lincoln Drive

 Tuesday, December 14 

• Green Street to Park Line, from Lincoln Drive to Allens Lane

Wednesday, December 15 

• Stenton Avenue to Germantown Avenue, from Vernon Road to Washington Lane
• Lincoln Drive to Germantown Avenue, from Upsal Street to Allens Lane

Thursday, December 16 

• Vernon Road to Cresheim Valley Road, from Stenton Avenue to Germantown Avenue

Friday, December 17 

• Thouron Street to Stenton Avenue, from Washington Lane to Ivy Hill Road

Free Tree Giveaway

Sign up today

West Mt. Airy Neighbors and East Mt. Airy Neighbors have partnered with TreePhilly to host a Free Yard Tree Giveaway for neighbors in the 19119 and 19150 zip code areas. All trees given through this program must be planted in the ground (not in a pot) on private property in the city of Philadelphia. Trees will be available for pick up on November 20th, at Pleasant Playground,

For more information and to register please. Click Here
Registration deadline is November 8th.