New law would ban truck
traffic from residential side streets

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

City Council last week unanimously passed a bill that a Northeast Philadelphia lawmaker hopes will protect neighbors of a new Home Depot from heavy traffic on their residential street.
Councilman Brian O’Neill’s amendment to the city’s streets code bans large shopping centers from placing any motor vehicle entrances within 60 feet of any neighboring residential driveway.
The bill passed the full Council last Thursday and is awaiting a signature or veto from Mayor John Street.
If the mayor takes neither action, the law would take effect two weeks from its passage date, O’Neill said.
The bill grew out of a dispute between the new Home Depot in the Leo Mall, at Bustleton Avenue and Hendrix Street, and its immediate neighbors, who claim that the store has reneged on prior assurances by routing construction vehicles and delivery trucks via Hendrix Street.
Residents want the commercial vehicles to stay off the side street and instead use Bustleton, which is a state highway.
During a Council committee hearing on the bill earlier this month, an official from the city’s Department of Streets testified against the bill, claiming that its language would expose untold numbers of existing shopping centers throughout the city to unknown consequences.
In response, O’Neill amended the bill to limit affected centers to those measuring 625,000 square feet and above, of which there are 22 in the city. None of the other 21 would be in violation of the regulation, the councilman claimed.
The Northeast Times sought comment on the Leo Mall situation from Home Depot officials but received no response.
Neighbors claim that project representatives told them more than a year ago during a presentation at a Somerton Civic Association meeting that trucks would use the Bustleton Avenue entrances and not Hendrix Street. Yet, signs posted around the construction site earlier this month instructed commercial vehicles to use the side street.
Neighbors fear that continued use of the Hendrix entrance will bring excessive traffic, noise, pollution and safety concerns to local residential streets.
The entrance predates the Home Depot and served as a rear access point to a Kmart formerly on the site. But the entrance became a primary access point when Home Depot changed the configuration of the shopping center. Further, residents say, the new occupant of the property widened the entrance. ••