Somerton backs three
zoning proposals, nixes a fourth

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Members of the Somerton Civic Association may not all think alike, but when local zoning is concerned, they can be as unified as anyone.
The SCA voted unanimously to support three zoning applications and to oppose another during its monthly general membership meeting on May 10 at Walker Lodge 306. About 75 residents attended the meeting.
Members gave the thumbs down to a proposal by two owners of child day-care centers to establish a corporate office in the former Watson Comly School at 13510 Trevose Road, just east of Bustleton Avenue.
The building dates to 1892 and most recently served as a Masonic Lodge hall. The day-care center owners said that they had an agreement of sale for the property pending approval of their zoning application by the city.
The site is zoned R-2 (residential). The women need a variance to open their office there. In all, they wish to create six to eight separate office spaces in the old school building for use in a variety of business, professional and medical activities.
The partners operate one day-care facility in the Northeast, at 9090 Old Bustleton Ave., and two more in Bucks County, they said. They do not intend to host any children on-site, however. They want to use the proposed business office to host clients, keep records and handle other administrative tasks.
They promised no exterior renovations to the community landmark, but they do want to modify the interior spaces.
Mary Jane Hazell, president of the SCA, didn’t think the business commercial use would fit in with the immediate area.
"It’s right next door to Somerton (United) Methodist Church and across from the (William Penn) Cemetery," Hazell said.
In addition, further east on Trevose Road is strictly residential.
"This is zoned R-2 and they are all single homes," Hazell said. "Why would you want to break up all of those single homes?"
The SCA will send a letter to the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment to oppose the application and will testify against the plan when the ZBA hears the case at a date to be announced.
One of the three projects to get the SCA’s OK is an antique auto restoration shop at 10085 Sandmeyer Lane.
The shop will serve exclusively the collection of Discovery Channel founder John S. Hendricks, who will show the vehicles in his new Gateway Colorado Auto Museum, said Alan Lewenthal, co-curator of the collection.
The museum chose the Philadelphia area for the shop because it is a hub of car-collecting activity, Lewenthal said. Though the proposed site of the shop is industrial, auto body repair uses are prohibited without ZBA approval.
Lewenthal said that while typical commercial shops may repair 18 to 20 cars a week, the Gateway Colorado shop might handle just one car. Among those in the Gateway collection are a rare Duesenberg and a one-of-a-kind 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 prototype that sold for over $3 million at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction in Arizona in January.
There is no word yet whether the Olds, which broke the prominent auction house’s sale price record, will be brought to Philly.
The shop will employ six people and will operate weekdays from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. According to Lewenthal, the air filtration system in the shop’s paint booth ensures that fumes do not pollute the outside air.
The civic association also approved the legalization of an addition to a home at 1234 Southampton Road that the owner, Joseph Pagano, had built without getting prior zoning approval.
The addition is 50 feet by 30 feet, Pagano said. It includes a garage and a room that the owner says he and his sons use for their hobbies.
But the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspection also cited Pagano for listing his small electronics business at the address, although he says he actually operates on the road out of a truck.
Since being cited, the owner has registered the business under a different address.
After viewing photos of the addition and Pagano’s spacious yards, the civic association voted to support the variance under the condition that the owner agrees not to conduct any commercial activity at the location.
Terrence Sweeney, owner of Sweeney’s bar, at Bustleton and Philmont avenues, also left the SCA meeting happy when the group voted to support his bid to have a roof sign at his business legalized.
The familiar sign as been on top of the building since before Sweeney bought the business 20 years ago, he said. In that time, city inspectors have routinely visited the business, but the non-permitted sign always passed inspection.
"They never asked me about the sign," Sweeney said.
Unknown to him, there was never a permit. Sweeney said he has stopped using temporary plastic "special event" signs outside his bar at the SCA’s request.
In other SCA business, Hazell said she was impressed by a tour of office buildings constructed by Brandywine Realty Trust, co-developer of the former Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry tract.
Brandywine took members of the civic group to Plymouth Meeting and other office locations on April 16 to show them some of what they can expect for the commercial office portion of the 131-acre development at the old hospital site.
"It will be an asset to Somerton," Hazell said.
City Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.) told residents that they should continue to push the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation to dedicate about $5 million it collected by selling the Byberry ground toward improving the future residential community on the site.
Westrum Development Co., which will build the homes, contributed most of the cash, while Brandywine also chipped in, O’Neill said. PIDC is a quasi-city agency that purchased the land from the state’s Bureau of Real Estate, before agreeing to sell the land to both developers following a request-for-proposals process.
The councilman is in a debate with city officials and PIDC over whether the $5 million is to go into PIDC’s general fund or into a separate fund to benefit Byberry directly. Mayor John Street must approve allocation of the money to the Byberry project, O’Neill said.
In other business, at-large Republican Councilman Jack Kelly reported that efforts by elected officials and community activists to lobby the Street administration to keep the Northeast Municipal Service Center open are beginning to reap benefits.
The facility, known as the mini-City Hall, at 9215-27 Roosevelt Blvd., is popular with Northeast residents for paying their property taxes and utility bills. The mayor has slated the facility to close at the end of the month as a cost-cutting move, though critics have deemed it a move of political spite.
Street, a lame-duck mayor, performed poorly in the Northeast in the last election cycle two years ago. The annual cost of the center’s lease and utilities is around $50,000, which supporters of the facility say is miniscule compared to the city’s overall budget and also pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it collects from taxpayers and utility consumers each year.
"I understand right now the mayor is wavering on this, and you should give yourselves a hand because of that," Kelly said.
The SCA is among many Northeast civics that support efforts to keep the facility open.
"Finally, I think we got the mayor’s attention," Kelly said. "It’s not a ‘done deal’ like he said it was two months ago." ••
The next Somerton Civic Association meeting will be held on June 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Walker Lodge 306, 1290 Southampton Road.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com