by Brendan Sample

At the latest meeting of the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee, Ardleigh Street resident Lynn Horner said she and her neighbors are concerned that the Jenks Academy of the Arts and Sciences is continuing to allow cars to park on its back lot and leaving the gate of its Ardleigh Street ramp open at night. Both of these practices would be in violation of an agreement struck between neighbors and the school when the ramp was built.

Horner said she had contacted both the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections and the Police Department to intervene without success, so she was looking for advice from the LUPZ.

“We don’t know how to address this,” Horner said. “We really have no power to enforce what they said they were going to do.”

While the committee members emphasized that they do not have any enforcement abilities, they felt that the CHCA Board of Directors may be able to provide more direct assistance in this particular matter. After some discussion as to what Ardleigh Street residents could do, no official motion was made or voted on during the meeting.

Horner also said she was concerned about a meeting that was held last week between Jenks principal Mary Lynskey, Philip Dawson, Chestnut Hill Business District executive director, and CHCA Executive Director Anne McNiff. Horner said she received a letter from Dawson indicating that the three parties discussed the possibility of a new agreement to allow for regular parking on the school grounds via the ramp, which Lynskey, Dawson and McNiff later confirmed to the Local. The neighbors were ultimately worried that the CHBD may have made a unilateral decision in this case.

Amanda Yoder, a member of the CHBD board who attended the LUPZ meeting, said that the CHBD was not making any unilateral decisions and that it would continue to work with other Chestnut Hill organizations on this matter. Dawson further confirmed this on the following day to the Local.

“I want to clarify that Phil Dawson is not making a unilateral decision,” Yoder said. “This was the parking work group that’s between the Community Association and Business District that came up with these new guidelines.”

The space has been a point of contention between the neighbors and the Jenks administration since the ramp was first built over two years ago. Residents of the 8300 block of Ardleigh have argued that vehicles using the ramp would worsen traffic on the street and adversely affect pedestrian safety.

Neighbors have also argued that Jenks has been in violation of an agreement between the School District of Philadelphia and CHCA established around the time the ramp was first built. The agreement stated that the ramp would not be used for parking, and that if the Jenks administration did want to use it for that purpose, it would inform both the CHCA and neighbors so that a solution could be worked out.

In an interview with the Local, Lynskey said that while there has been some parking on the lot in recent weeks, she felt that the neighbor’s concerns were exaggerated. She said that the gate, to her knowledge, had not been left open overnight, and that the longest it has been left open at once was to allow workers and deliveries access to the school, as that is the explicit purpose of the ramp. One of these instances was earlier this month when contractors from First Builders used the lot when they installed new lockers at the school. She also accused some of the Ardleigh residents of harassing the workers as they were going in and out of the building.

“Some of the Ardleigh neighbors have continued to harass the workers on Jenks’ property and make threats toward them, which involve them saying that they’re taking pictures of the workers, writing about them and filming them,” Lynskey said.

Lynskey said that the only instance where she allowed teachers to park on the lot was one day when the wind chill caused the temperature to drop below zero and there were no other parking spaces within several blocks of the school. She allowed two teachers to park on the lot so that they would not have to endure the cold weather.

Lynskey did say, however, that she hoped Jenks could work out a resolution with the community. Though nothing is close to being set in stone, she feels that Jenks is not the only party interested in further utilizing the ramp space.

“I would love for it to ultimately be used as a parking lot, and so would the Business Association, because it would get cars off the street,” Lynskey explained. “We’re actually losing service from substitute teachers because of a lack of parking.”

In addition to the Jenks ramp concerns, the LUPZ also heard from an applicant, represented by local attorney Blair Adler, looking for a permit to make several changes at 77157717 Germantown Ave. The application is “for the relocation of lot lines to create two (2) lots from three (3) lots and for the erection of an addition above an attached structure.”

The applicants were issued a refusal from L&I based on the proposed lot lines, so they plan to withdraw the current application and reapply with adjusted lines. Their appeal hearing before the Zoning Board of Adjustment is currently set for March 20.

The next LUPZ meeting is set for Thursday, March 7 at 8 p.m. in the Chestnut Hill Hospital. Brendan Sample can be reached at 215-248-8819 or at brendan@chestnuthilllocal.com