You may recall that last week, we told you about plans for a big new mixed-use building at 1405 Frankford Ave. and predicted a fun community meeting on June 21st. We weren't able to make it to the meeting, but it was apparently a doozy. Between a thread on Fishtown.us, a string of tweets from the Fishtown Twitter account, and some reader emails, we got most of the details of how things went down for this project from Trinity Realty Companies.
Most Patient Fishtowner Award goes to woman who’s been standing all meeting and is also wearing a hoodie.
— Fishtown (@fishtown) June 22, 2016
A reader who attended the meeting shared some renderings to give us an idea of what we can expect here, assuming the project gets approval from the ZBA.
At the meeting, members of the community came forward with all kinds of questions and comments. Some people took issue with the fact that some of the community garden will disappear, though others noted that the owners of the property are entitled to do whatever they want with their land. Many people felt that the provided parking was not sufficient, but the fact that there's no refusal for parking (appropriately) took much of the fire out of the argument. People asked about unions, pricing for the units (starting at $300K), lowering the density, possible retail tenants, the possibility of hiding the utility meters (it's possible!), and public safety during construction.
In the end, the community voted 71-68 in favor of the project, though people living closer to the property were less supportive than those living farther away. Next, it's onto the ZBA, with a hearing lined up in July or August. Taking into account that the by-right play for this property would be so much worse for the community, you'd have to think those who don't like it won't raise a huge stink but you can never be sure. With any luck though, this project will get approved by the ZBA, it won't get appealed, and it'll get in the ground sometime this year, filling in another gap on Frankford Avenue.