As Passyunk Avenue has flourished, the surrounding neighborhood hasn't seen as much development as you might expect, due at least in part to the fact that there was relatively little blight or vacancy on the blocks. On the southern end of the neighborhood close to Snyder Avenue though, some underutilized properties present an opportunity for residential redevelopment for creative developers. At 2015 S. Hutchinson St., that's exactly what's on tap, probably.
Most of this block of S. Hutchinson St. is residential, and the long wall on the east side certainly doesn't make the block any prettier. Behind the wall is a mostly vacant land, but a couple of small buildings dot the property. The property came to our attention because it was listed on the ZBA docket for next week, with a plan for eight duplexes. Looking at the East Passyunk Crossing Civic website, we learned that the project has been 86ed, we assume because the community didn't support the plan. The website further explains that the developers will be pursuing a by-right project which we assume will also be residential in nature. This makes all kinds of sense for the block, though we'll again assume the buildings will rise much taller than the existing two-story homes on the block. On the plus side, they'll have parking access via a 25' section of the property that goes straight through to Percy Street.
Seeing the condition of the 2000 block of S. Percy St., we wonder whether these developers, or perhaps other developers, will soon look to buy property on this block for additional residential development. We think that all the buildings are currently in use, but the right offer could surely change things in a hurry.
Does anyone know anything about the by-right plan for Hutchinson Street? Does anyone know for sure why they moved away from the ZBA process?