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Mon
Sep 10
2012

Months Later, Parking Lot Becoming Lombard Estates After All

In the spring, we told you about Lombard Estates, an 11-home development going up on the 1800 block of Lombard Street. At the time, we had just come from a CCRA zoning meeting where neighbors and the developers seemed at odds over certain aspects of the project, including height, rear yard space, and the proximity of the planned homes to the existing homes on Addison Street. Also, neighbors were disturbed that the parking lot, which allowed egress from their rear yards, would disappear.

Fencing is up

It's a hole!

While we can certainly understand the concerns of near neighbors regarding the idea of new houses going up less than ten feet from some of their homes, it also made sense for this surface lot to be replaced by development, in this extremely desirable location. From what we’ve heard, the developer and the neighbors came to some sort of an agreement, the ZBA approved the project, and work has recently gotten underway.

Project rendering

In case you don’t recall, the project will include four 16′ wide homes, five 21′ wide homes (with 4,100 sqft of living space), one 31′ wide home, and one 40′ wide home, with three car parking, and 7,200 sqft of living space. While several of these homes, designed by Landmark Architectural Design, will be enormous, we suspect the developers will be able to find buyers, considering the quality location and of course convenient access to take-out beer at Tangier.

Front and back

It always brings us pleasure to see downtown surface parking lots developed, though we’d guess that some near neighbors who have used this lot for years are now parking-spot-less. With the (totally appropriate) development of this and other surface lots in Center City, it does beg the question of what car-owning residents can do for parking moving forward. Have we perhaps reached the point where it would make sense for somebody to build a few well-designed, pedestrian friendly (ie with commercial on the first floor) parking garages in the Rittenhouse or Graduate neighborhoods? Or is street parking sufficient? Or should everybody just get a bike already and stop worrying about parking?

20
COMMENTS
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Posted in Rittenhouse | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments
  • bikephilly

    In the 3+ years I have lived in grad hospital, the parking situation has declined in a really noticeable way. It is no longer feasible to live here and expect to rely on street parking. We need more lots!

  • 3rd&Brown

    It’s probably time for a garage, though isn’t there one already one the next block down (South)?

  • http://www.facebook.com/grojlart.rhaandarite GroJlart Rhaandarite

    These NIMBY tears are delicious!

  • phillycb

    Well, the good thing with this project and the parking situation is that there was never parking allowed on this side of the street to begin with, so this project won’t interfere any more than the current parking problem in the hood.

  • ea

    Well designed pedestrian friendly parking garages would be great. The use of car elevators should allow for more cars to fit in less space and for more retail space because there wont need to be room for ramps.

  • g-ho giant

    Should you also mention that one of the individuals behind this blog is also the developer?

  • Anonymous

    No….because that’s not true.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8201023 Scott Gross

    Maybe at 18th and Lombard you just don’t need a car? Or most of the city, for that matter.

    Just a thought.

  • Eric Clay Warner

    The LAST thing this city needs is another parking garage. Take public transit people and ditch the car. You only live in the third most dense downtown in the nation.

  • 3rd&Brown

    Oh right. Because nobody in the city works in the suburbs. Until the city gets its fiscal act in order (and can attract businesses to employ all of these carless people you speak of), be thankful for the 100,000s of people who live there, contribute, pay wage tax, and unfortunately, have to work in the burbs, and thus, most often need to own a car. Without us, the city would be nothing. Sorry. Truth.

  • 3rd&Brown

    Oh wait. It would be something. Detroit.

  • blurb

    You’re right let’s bring back the 1:1 parking ratio

  • 3rd&Brown

    I think there’s a happy medium between 1:1 parking and no cars at all. I’m not advocating either. Don’t put words in my mouth. Ironically of course, this development provides more than that.

  • jonnnyt

    kind of ironic that your user name is bikephilly

  • 3rd&Brown

    YES. Exactly that.
    No, dufus. What I’m saying is that when you say things like “Maybe at 18th & Lombard you just don’t need a car” and “or most of the city, for that matter” you dismiss the fact that many people in the city DO need a car. To get to work. To pay for the houses that are eating up that god-awful surface lot, among other things.
    If you’d rather instead have a city than cannot accomodate pedestrians and cars and bikes (and only the first and last), than all of those tens of thousands of people (who require cars) can just move to the burbs (who are buying up much of this real estate), and you can keep your surface lots and your gentrifying ghettos to yourself.
    I am the last person to bitch about parking, but the simple question was, has the situation reached a point in that area where another (smartly) designed garage may be necessary. And to that question, my answer was yes. You can be for houses without garage fronts and for a good pedestrian experience and for bikelines. I’m for all of those things. But it is unreasonable to think that here and there a well-placed garage to capture the overflow isn’t needed from time to time or area to area.
    This is one such candidate, primarily to cater to those folks who live in the area but must commute to the burbs for work.

  • Anonymous

    Wow you’re an idiot. What has hurt Detroit is it was built for cars. Philadelphia, which you may not know, was not built for cars. Oh and most of the trains in the city reach the suburbs.

  • Anonymous

    This might come as a shock, but you don’t build houses in this city for people with the most sophisticated taste. You build them for people who will buy them.

  • http://twitter.com/thisoldcity this old city

    Simple solution to the parking problem, extend district 1 to every graduate hospital street. I live on Kimball… if I didn’t have to go through the hassle of getting 70% of my neighbors to agree, we’d be a permit street.

    Oh, and the city should dramatically increase yearly permitting prices. Price the occasional car users out with higher annual fees that support street level improvements, not our schools, which should be funded through property taxes (which, yes I know need to be cleaned up). Also, if we did what NY did, street sweeping once or twice a week, we’d force people to move cars they don’t move sometimes for weeks at a time. The easiest possible parking situation is not always the best for the city’s stewardship. Car owners, myself included, should be charged more than $40 per year to RENT city street space to park a mode of transit not all of us frankly need.

  • http://twitter.com/F1rstCitizen First Citizen

    Yes because people who still need cars for whatever reason but can’t afford to spend $500 on street parking don’t deserve to live in the neighborhood.

  • C.W. Mote

    Everybody just get a bike already and stop worrying about parking!!!

    (And if you absolutely need a car, find another lot…there are about 20 more of them on Lombard St. alone.)

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