A little over a year ago, we visited the 1300 block of Crease St., a narrow street that runs between Thompson St. and Frankford Ave. and possesses an array of homes with varying architectural styles. Parking is king on this block, and most homes either have garages or large driveways. When we last visited, we told you of plans for four new homes on this block near Frankford Avenue. Checking back in, we can see that the homes are done, with three under agreement and one more available for sale. In the sense that they don't look like many of the other homes on the block, they fit right in.
Today we move down the block, closer to Thompson St., and consider 1321 Crease St., currently a vacant lot, vacant home, a rough looking garage.
Last year, developers came before the community and got support to build a four-unit condo building here. Myphillykind had the lowdown on the project, and had some renderings that showed exactly what was proposed.
At some point though, the developers decided to scrap this approach and they came back to FNA with a new project for this site, this time proposing four homes, each with two-car parking. At an FNA meeting earlier this month, the community narrowly came out against the project, according to Fishtown.us.
Did anyone out there attend these community meetings? Can anyone provide insight into why the project shifted from condos to homes? And considering that it would be the same number of units and twice as much parking, does anyone know why the neighbors supported the initial project but didn't like the revised version?
The project goes to the ZBA in a couple of weeks- it should be interesting to see whether they'll get approvals for this project. And if they don't we wonder whether they'll go back to the original version and try again.