Chestnut Hill Conservancy founding director Shirley Hanson (left discusses aspects of the Northwest District plan with developer and conservancy board member Richard Snowden (center) and another attendee at a community meeting on Monday, July 23.

by Brendan Sample

As the Upper Northwest Draft Plan for the Philadelphia2035 initiative nears its deadline for public comments, local community leaders are urging residents to submit their comments on the plan before September 4. Lori Salganicoff, Chestnut Hill Conservancy Executive Director, Joyce Lenhardt, Vice President of the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s Physical Division, and Phil Dawson, Chestnut Hill Business District Executive Director, all spoke with the Local about what they’re hoping to see out of the finished plan for both their respective departments and the neighborhood as a whole.

The current draft of the Upper Northwest Plan was revealed on July 17 and was discussed in further detail during a community meeting on July 23. While the plan covers a wide range of topics throughout the region, the two main focus areas are Central Germantown and Wayne Junction. While Chestnut Hill community leaders do not want to see the specific focus areas of the plans change, there are several changes they are hoping to see that they believe will help the area as a whole.

“We just want to make sure that the concerns that are expressed and the solutions to those concerns that are expressed in the district plan really represent all of the community's needs,” Salganicoff said. “There are some things that are really not as well-described here or even recommended that could benefit all three neighborhoods, and these just happen to be things that we've focused on in our community planning jointly.”

Having the resources to maintain historical assets in the community, such as Belgian block-lined streets, pedestrian lighting and heritage trees, was one of the most important aspects they hope to see added to the plan. In regard to the trees specifically, the plan does account for adding new ones along streets in the community, but not for protecting historical ones as well. With Chestnut Hill’s level of tree coverage already higher than the overall city average, they feel that efforts to preserve the ones that are already here should be given more attention.

“Providing adequate funding citywide for the maintenance of street trees is something that historically has been an issue,” Dawson said. “But it is important from a planning perspective to make sure that as we advocate for adding new trees, that we can also maintain the ones that we have and remove those that are past their prime or dangerous.”

Another idea that was suggested for the plan was increasing the minimum size for new lots to a half-acre. The current minimum is just under a quarter-acre at 10,000 square feet, which can lead to a high number of subdivided lots in the area. The planning staff did suggest the half-acre minimum as a way of limiting subdivision, the proposal was later withdrawn and does not appear on the current draft plan.

“We feel that it's still something that we should be talking about,” Lenhardt said. “There may be pros and cons to that, but we haven't even had a chance to weigh in on it. Since it's now not in the plan, it makes it a little harder for us to do that.”

While each organization may have its own area of interest in the plan, all said they recognized opportunities for them to work together and accomplish more for the overall community. Preserving historical properties and guiding “appropriate development” in the area are efforts that will prove to have both short-term and long-term benefits to the CHCA, Conservancy and Business District.

“There’s definitely a lot of crossover between different departments and areas, so we’ll be looking for that going forward,” said Anne McNiff, CHCA Executive Director. “We ultimately want to present a united front on this matter, and we’re very happy to be working with both the Conservancy and the Business District to ensure that certain aspects of Chestnut Hill are covered.”

The plan will ultimately be revised and finalized after public comments close on September 4. While a final plan will not represent any guarantees of zoning changes in the community, the recommendations are still easier to change now than they will be by the time they take the form of proposed legislation. Community leaders are thus urging residents to make their voices heard on this matter before the plan gets to that point.

Another community meeting will be held on August 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chestnut Hill Hospital to further discuss the plan. In addition, residents can also email any comments they have about the plan to Community Planner Ian Hegarty, as well as to Salganicoff, Dawson or McNiff directly.

Ian Hegarty: ian.hegarty@phila.gov

Lori Salganicoff: lori@chconservancy.org

Phil Dawson: pdawson@chestnuthillpa.com

Anne McNiff: anne@chestnuthill.org

Brendan Sample can be reached at brendan@chestnuthilllocal.com