There's enough development in and around Fishtown that seeing the occasional boarded up building and Stop Work Order doesn't really give us much pause these days. Still, when a reader reached out recently, wondering about 2315-17 Sepviva St., we figured we could at least sniff around to see if we could figure out what's going on. And we're still a little short on details, sadly.
2315 Sepviva St. has been a vacant lot for many years, and looking at the historical images from Google Street View we can see someone once used the lot as a home for their above-ground pool. The home next door has been partially demolished but wasn't so big beforehand at only 12' wide. Developers bought the properties about a year ago, then flipped them to another developer in March. A few months ago, they came before the Fishtown Neighbors Association with plans for two homes but the community unanimously opposed the plan. By right, developers can build homes that go back 37.8 feet, so we'd imagine they were only trying to build a little deeper than is legally permitted. We weren't at the community meeting so we're not sure why nobody supported the project. The ZBA denied the application.
Developers have demolition permits but last month got hit with a Stop Work Order, seemingly for not having a license available onsite. We'd imagine the developers will now build by right or come back to the community with revised plans, but it feels like we're missing a peice of the puzzle here. Two new homes would make a lot of sense for this location, ideally with the lot lines moved slightly so that each home will be a more appropriate 14' wide. First though, the Stop Work Order is going to have to come down.
Does anyone who lives in the area have any more insight into what's going on here?