Bitter Woodmere fight comes before ZBA
by JAMES STURDIVANT
Hopes for an amicable resolution of the conflict between neighbors and the Woodmere Art Museum over the construction of a new addition were shattered last week when a special hearing before the city zoning board produced little more than a call for new discussions amid angry sniping and recriminations.
Lawyers for both parties in the dispute, the museum and the newly-formed North Chestnut Hill Neighbors Association, agreed that the two sides would meet privately sometime before Dec. 3, by which time each side pledged to present a statement of its position before the zoning board.
"I think that there's a deal here somewhere if we can get past the emotions," ZBA chairman David Auspitz said.
Emotion ruled the day last Wednesday at 1515 Arch Street, however.
The hearing began with each side summarizing its position on the issue of the museum's proposed 25,000 sq. ft., two-story addition designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Calling it...
Opposition organizes to fight watershed development
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
A nonprofit community group -- the Wissahickon East Project -- formed earlier this month in the hopes of heading off a proposed housing development along the Cresheim Creek in East Mt. Airy. Though the development plan, which would place 23 single-family houses on a six-acre plot, still awaits final engineering, the group isn't wasting any time.
Named for the area of the park between Germantown and Stenton avenues, the nonprofit would like to see the land they call "the last surviving piece of wild Cresheim Creek" donated to the Friends of the Wissahickon or Fairmount Park. Bala Cynwyd-based developer DeSouza Brown owns the tract, located near the intersection of Anderson Street and Woodbrook Lane.
In an interview, firm partner Bernard Brown said that unchecked rumors are responsible for misinformation in the community. Brown confirmed that his firm had drawn up conceptual plans to develop about 23 single-family lots and that the design is weeks away from completion.
About 70 neighbors mobilized at a community meeting last month in response to talk of a large-scale apartment complex. According to Wissahickon East director Howard Coale, the East Mt. Airy community defeated a development proposal six years ago when DeSouza Brown...
Mt. Airy native helps launch U.K. anti-war group
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
Dante Zappala's six-month journey for the truth brought him to Prime Minister Tony Blair's door in London last week. Standing with British families whose sons were killed in the Iraq war, Zappala, a Mt. Airy native, felt the sense of accountability he says has eluded him since his brother, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, died on April 26 when a suspected chemical warehouse exploded in Baghdad.
Staring at his reflection in the Downing Street door, Zappala, 29, joined the others as they delivered a wreath of poppies in remembrance of fallen soldiers, literally placing blame at Blair's door on the eve of Armistice Day.
The demonstration was a not-so-subtle announcement of a movement already more than 1,800-strong in the United States: military families openly critical of their government's participation in the Iraq war.
Zappala, who lives and teaches in Los Angeles, recounted his recent travels during an informal gathering last Saturday to an overflow crowd of family and friends at his mother's Mt. Airy home.
He visited the United Kingdom on behalf of Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group whose members have children or relatives in the military. Initially set to speak about...