Most of Northwest Philadelphia is zoned rather restrictively, with large sections only allowing for the construction of single family homes. Many areas even prohibit rowhomes, the most Philadelphian of housing typologies. Fortunately there are a few pockets, often near Regional Rail stations, where at least a bit of density is allowed. We’ve checked out some of the newer apartment buildings next to the East Falls Station and across the street from the Chestnut Hill West Station, of late.

While much of the density east of the Wissahickon is restricted to the Germantown Avenue corridor, the City’s land-use regulations generally allow for moderate development along Chelten Avenue, like the 50 unit building we wrote about earlier this month. So let’s swing by Septa’s Chelten Avenue Station to take a look at some of the new developments that have popped up within a short stroll of the Regional Rail stop.

Literally next door to the train station at 308-310 Chelten Ave. is the recently completed Station Square building, with 49 apartments and a commercial space. It’s a bit frustrating to see a driveway to the 16 parking spots almost immediately adjacent to a train station, but considering that much of this site was a surface parking lot a few years ago, it’s still an undeniable upgrade. We noticed a restaurant was recently permitted for the ground floor commercial space, though we didn’t see any signs of a build out quite yet on our recent site visit.

Just down the block at 234-36 Chelten Ave. is another mixed-use building, this time on the site of a former restaurant. Named Chelten Terminal, the building includes 45 apartments ranging from studios to two bedroom units. With a vacant commercial space along the sidewalk, the project also includes 30 parking spots. Developers seem confident there’s a demand for new apartments in this pocket of Germantown with access to the commuter rail line, but they also seem pretty sure that many tenants want access to a dedicated off-street parking spot too. Hopefully whatever business eventually moves into the retail space will help activate the street a bit.

Behind the Chelten Terminal building at 5545 Pulaski St. sits The Nook, on a flag lot. The 34 unit building was completed in 2022, upgrading a property that’s been vacant for decades. The project includes a handful of parking streets in the pole section of the flag lot, with additional spots on the first floor of the building. Fortunately this project doesn’t have a commercial component, as nobody would ever see retail space in this building from a hundred feet away.

Developers clearly have an appetite for medium-sized mixed-use buildings in much of Germantown, but as long as these types of projects are forbidden in much of Northwest Philadelphia, we’ll only see them in the handful of pockets with less restrictive zoning. Seeing three buildings go up near each other over a few years, one might assume that the whole neighborhood is undergoing a multi-family construction boom – but it reflects self imposed scarcity. Maybe one day, these types of buildings will be allowed within the full walkshed of the train station, but for now we’re grateful for these scraps and pleased to see the redevelopment of some surface lots close to mass transit.