Just how far west will new developments keep popping up along Lancaster Avenue? We’ve covered a few new projects along the West Philly corridor over the last few months, but we were pleasantly surprised last week to see the ZBA grant a variance for a small apartment building on 54th Street in the Hestonville neighborhood.

The four story building with 8 apartments at 1692 N 54th St will go up on a corner lot that’s been vacant for decades. Despite an elementary school just across the street and the presence of a building with 4 apartments on this site back in the day, the city’s zoning code only allows a single family home on this empty parcel. Fortunately over the last few years the ZBA has been willing to grant variances for multi-family buildings along this stretch of 54th St South of Lancaster Ave, including a 4 unit building down the block and several larger buildings on the other side of Hunter Street.

Because it’s going up on a corner lot, the building will incorporate a good number of windows along the long side of the building on Stewart Street, including at the ground level. With a good amount of brick being used all the way up to the top floor, the building will avoid the large uninterrupted blank paneling on the most visible facades. With street-level entrances and no basement, each of the first floor units will be convertible to being fully ADA compliant.

It’s undoubtedly nice to see that this long unused piece of land only about 500 feet away from a trolley stop will soon provide much needed housing, though we wish the building included a couple family-friendly two or three bedroom apartments, with Heston Elementary across the street. And the school certainly could use more students as well after a post-COVID decline in enrollment. With plenty of lots still sitting vacant on this block, it’s quite possible we’ll see some additional homes rise on this block in the near future. We can only hope that some of those homes include new students at Heston.