A developer wants to tear down this house to make way for a new apartment building. EMAN voted not to support the project. (Photo by Brendan Sample)

by Brendan Sample

Forty-seven local residents came out to the latest East Mt. Airy Neighbors zoning meeting to show their opposition to a proposed apartment complex on 318 East Durham St. After hearing further information from representatives of the developer, Galman Group, the neighbors all voted, aside from two who abstained, not to approve the plans for the complex. Though the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment will have the final say in on the variances Galman seeks, a negative recommendation from EMAN may be enough to convince the ZBA to force Galman back to the drawing board.

Saying it is looking to further invest in Mt. Airy, Galman’s proposal calls for adding to the existing Sedgwick Station apartments, which occupy the same area as 318 E. Durham. Though this new complex would not be physically attached to the existing one, neighbors remain concerned that it would cause problems with the overall look of the property, traffic and stormwater management, among other potential issues.

“The apartment complex is really an eyesore in the neighborhood, in my opinion,” said one neighbor in attendance. “It doesn’t match anything else around it, and to add more of that doesn’t feel great. I’m wondering why there’s a sense that this new structure should match what is already there. If you’re going to contribute a building ... it shouldn’t be something that is completely different from the houses across the street.”

Another aspect that stands out about this application is that Galman will need multiple variances approved by the city instead of just one. These variances would allow the developer to ignore four restrictions in what is an RSA-3-zoned area, which is specifically for single-family housing. The developer wants to build multi-unit housing, create 10 more parking spaces than what is allowed, leave less than 50 percent or more of the property as open space and build rear yards of less than 20 feet in depth.

Because of the breadth of the variances, the neighbors said the changes are just too much for the property.

“It seems like you’re trying to essentially rezone the property without going through the rezoning process,” said Durham Street resident Kelly O’Day.

In order to build this new complex, Galman would tear down the existing house at that address, as they felt that it had deteriorated to the point where it needed to be demolished. The current tenant, Natashia Martinez, had actually been unaware of the apparent condition of her house or Galman’s plans prior to hearing about it from neighbors. Though Galman confirmed that this process would take years to be fully enacted, she remained concerned about not hearing about this from the developer directly.

“The house is really cute, I love it and I was never notified that this is what you wanted to do,” Martinez said. “I just renewed my lease, and I’m just really brought back as to why this is going on.”

With participating neighbors unanimously voting against the complex plans, the EMAN zoning board will be putting together a letter expressing the community’s opinion on the project to the ZBA. Galman's hearing is set for Jan. 9, and the board told residents that the more of them that come out to testify against the project, the more likely it will be that the ZBA ultimately rejects Galman's variance requests.

The next EMAN zoning meeting is set for Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Mt. Airy USA on 6703 Germantown Ave. Brendan Sample can be reached at brendan@chestnuthilllocal.com