This is crazy, we hardly ever have anything to cover in Society Hill and now we're back in the neighborhood for the second time in a week. This time though, we're covering something that's not nearly as complicated or controversial as the demolition of a neighborhood supermarket. Instead, we're letting you know about a proposal for a pair of homes on Panama Street. A reader drew our attention to zoning notices posted at 336 S. 6th St., on a two-story building that was clearly built long after the many historic buildings in the neighborhood.
No big whoop to see this building demolished, right? Looking at the architecture, we wonder what they were thinking back in 1981 when it was constructed. It's been used for the last number of years as a four-unit building with a small surface parking lot in the rear.
But hold the phone! Looking at the zoning notice, we realized that the developers are not looking to tear down the building at the corner (bummer), but are instead subdividing the property and planning a pair of homes on the surface parking lot. We don't much care for surface parking lots, as you probably know by now, so we're feeling pretty good about the plan. According to some notes from the Historical Commission meeting on the project from last month, the homes will rise four stories and include garage parking. Sounds good, and with the ZBA giving their blessing earlier this week, it seems the project is a go.
We just hope that this project proceeds with greater speed than the apartment building that's still under construction down the block at 6th & Addison. Remember, we first told you about plans for this corner back in 2012, when developers were looking to build two homes. After getting shot down by the ZBA, they changed their tune, going by-right for the six-unit building you see in the image above. Framing started for that project in the fall of 2015, and now here we are at the end of the winter of 2017 and it still isn't done. Wonder what caused the construction timeline to drag on for so long.