All tagged Zoning
At the November 30 Swarthmore Zoning Hearing Board meeting, the board approved a joint application by Swarthmore United Methodist Church and the nonprofit Swarthmore Community Center, Inc. for a use variance to permit the center to operate a new community center—to be called Park Avenue Community Center—on the church’s property.
A routine meeting of Swarthmore’s Zoning Hearing Board sparks an exploration of the history of zoning decisions in the rapidly gentrifying Historically Black Neighborhood of Swarthmore, and some questions about the borough’s future.
The Swarthmore Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved a special exception for Kit Raven to build a “family/caregiver suite” at her house on Dartmouth Avenue. Raven’s is the first application for a family/caregiver suite to come before the board since the borough amended its zoning code to permit them in 2018.
At the Swarthmore Borough Council meeting on September 8, five neighbors from surrounding houses expressed their concerns over Cavalier Homes’ plan to subdivide the lot at 686 N. Chester Road. Also, the county council has asked each of the county’s 49 municipalities to install a ballot box 5 feet high and 2 feet wide in a place that is ADA accessible, well-lit, and subject to 24/7 video surveillance. The box will be emptied by county election bureau employees, and will remain in place for five years.
As houses in the borough keep getting bigger, they fetch higher sale prices when they turn over. This means that the people who can afford to move to this town have to be increasingly rich. But while the property belongs to one person or family, the town belongs to all of us. This is about me. It’s about who I want my neighbors to be. This is about us, and what kind of community we want to be.
Swarthmore’s Planning Commission approved plans to subdivide the property at 686 N. Chester Road into two parcels at a nearly three-hour meeting on August 19. The vote was 10 to 1, with commissioner James Levine voting no.
