Bell’s Mill Road plans in
CHCA’s future agenda

By KATIE WORRALL

After briefly considering a Chestnut Hill homeowner’s plans for an addition to a carriage house, the Chestnut Hill Community Association Development Review Committee on November 18 discussed projects on East and West Bell’s Mill Roads.

Marie Lachat, the CHCA community manager, will contact the city to learn its plans for West Bell’s Mill Road between Germantown and Ridge avenues, which is currently open to only westbound traffic because the bridge is under construction. Jennifer Tilley, a resident of the street, told the committee that she is concerned about the use of the street by 18-wheel trucks, although there is a sign prohibiting trucks over 40 tons. Tilley would like trucks prohibited from using Bell’s Mill Road completely.

Tilley wants the street to retain its historic integrity and to have textured surfaces on the roadway to control the speed of traffic. Speed-limiting measures are also needed to control the limit speed of vehicles traveling north on Germantown Avenue as they approach Bell’s Mill Road, she told the Local.

Regarding the stretch of East Bell’s Mill Road between Stenton and Germantown avenues that the city is planning to renovate, Lachat will send a DRC application to the Philadelphia Streets Department. The application, which the CHCA requests of all property owners planning projects that require zoning variances or use permits from the city, would provide the committee with information about the project so that it and other CHCA committees could make knowledgeable decisions of whether or not to support the project. The application will be a follow-up mailing to a previous letter to the Streets Department from Lachat, in which she requested plans for the project before a public meeting.

East Bell’s Mill Road residents Bob Shusterman and Janice Manzi and Chestnut Hill Historical Society director Peter Lapham recently met with Tom Branigan, the Streets Department official handling project, to review information in the city file about previous plans to renovate the street.

Owners of property at 429 West Moreland Ave. planning to convert a 1 1/2 car carriage house to a four-car carriage house to accommodate family vehicles are being asked to present plans to both the CHCA Land Use Planning & Zoning Committee and the Chestnut Hill Historical Society’s Historic District Advisory Committee. The variances and use permits are required because of the two-story addition and the multiple use of a property.

The DRC application indicates that the addition will be of similar stone and style to the 1912 colonial-style residence. The LUPZ reviews all plans requiring variances or use permits from the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment or the Department of Licenses & Inspection. The project is being referred to the Historical Society because the residence is considered “significant” on the National Register of Historic District.

As part of the CHCA’s efforts to facilitate its review process, there was no presentation of the project to the Development Review Committee by the owners or architects because all the pertinent information (the DRC application, drawings of the plans, support of neighbors and a copy of the L & I “Refusal”) had been submitted to the Community Association.