You know how there are some streets in Philadelphia that confuse the heck out of you because they disappear and reappear, seemingly without rhyme or reason? We're looking at you, Bonsall Street. You too, Kenilworth Street! And there are many others.
While these streets are certainly confounding, especially to people new to town, at least you know where to find them when they exist. Kenilworth is between Bainbridge and Fitzwater Streets. When it's there, Bonsall runs between 23rd and 24th Streets. In Fishtown, Dakota Street is a similar animal, but because so many streets come and go you could visit the neighborhood a bunch of times and still struggle to find it. One block in particular, the 2300 block, is nearly impossible to discover. There's no sign, cars can't drive on it, and it only runs for about a quarter of a block.
It's here that we found a zoning notice the other day, while meandering around Fishtown trying to resist the urge to visit Pizza Brain (mission accomplished, for now). We saw that the address was for 2300 E. Dakota St., and thought that whoever posted the sign had made a mistake. Only after looking carefully at a map did we realize that the sign did indeed belong there.
Currently, there's a trio of two-story homes on this block, and there's a vacant lot on one side and three more vacant lots on the other side. Developers purchased every property on the block over the last few years and now they're planning to redevelop the properties. Their plan, which will come before the Fishtown Neighbors Association this coming Tuesday, calls for the demolition of the existing homes and the construction of seven new homes on seven lots.
It will be interesting to see what the community thinks about this proposal, considering that most of the lots on this block are only about 12.5' wide. We haven't seen the plans, but we'd have to imagine the new skinny homes will need a variance for a lack of open area. The lots are only 41.75' deep, so by-right they could only build 29' deep homes. That's really small. We wonder, will the community look to reduce the density here and encourage the developers to build six or perhaps only five homes that have a larger footprint? We have no idea whether that would provide an appropriate return on investment, but the larger homes certainly seem like an easier sell.
That is, of course, if the potential buyers are able to find them in the first place.