Grays Ferry has seen some amount of redevelopment in the last few years, but most of it has been limited to the northern and eastern section of the neighborhood. That's why we were fairly shocked to hear from a reader that spotted zoning notices at a vacant lot at 3229 Tasker St., across the street from Audenried High School and just a few steps from I-76.
This parcel is quite large, measuring over 6,000 sqft, and could accommodate a large number of apartments by right, since it's zoned for multi-family use. On the other hand, we're not too sure that people would clamor to live so close to a highway onramp. We thought it was quite odd for this parcel to be zoned for residential use, we'd think that commercial or industrial would make much more sense given the proximity of the highway. Digging a little deeper though, we discovered that most of this pocket is similarly zoned.
This could be due to the fact that many of these properties currently contain affordable housing units, built by PHA, and it could also be related to the fact that this area hasn't been remapped in decades. Since this part of the neighborhood doesn't see much development it's not a huge problem, but for the folks interested in building something at 3229 Tasker St. it certainly created an issue. The developers wish to build a commissary and catering space, which makes perfect sense based on the location. But because the zoning is outdated, they needed to go before the ZBA, adding time and expense to their process. Thankfully, they received approval from the ZBA last month- but if the property were properly zoned it's likely they'd already be under construction.