Here's an excerpt from our annual membership meeting. Help us grow our membership by sharing this message with your neighbors and asking them to become active members.

Hello friends and neighbors! Last year, we celebrated our 75th anniversary. From development reviews to social programs and building bridges with community partners, we have enriched the lives of those who call this community home or place of business, worship, education and more. When I returned as president having served four years previously, I considered the legacy of volunteers before me and what more we could accomplish together. We have made progress on our five strategic objectives to carry the Community Association forward:

Celebrating our 75th anniversary and rich history

You may have noticed great gems all year long from our archives. Studying our history is a good reminder of our purpose and our legacy to carry forward. Common threads have been our advocacy in the face of transit cuts, improving our community with green space work and prudent development review, supporting our local business community, and ensuring community residents feel connected with programs and local news coverage of issues that shape our community and neighborhood discussion.

Growing our membership base substantially

We are lucky to live in a place that inspires a connection to Chestnut Hill. Whether you are a CHCA member, a subscriber to the newspaper, or not yet a member who lives or works in the area, you have enjoyed Chestnut Hill's charms. Today our blended CHCA and Chestnut Hill Local tally is over 2,000 households. We have set an ambitious goal of adding 1,000 new member households and are working with large apartment complexes and homeowner associations to acquaint them with all that we do. We also launched our first summer membership drive and referral program. Members who sign up new members earn one free month of membership up to three referrals. Chestnut Hill is a state of mind for those with an affinity for our area.

Improving our community development review process

The CHCA is one of four registered community organizations in Chestnut Hill. We have the added distinction of being the "coordinating" RCO convening the other RCOs and reflecting the community's voice. We have spent several years studying and discussing with our community partners at the Chestnut Hill Conservancy and Chestnut Hill Business District how we could refine our combined processes. This has included surveys, focus groups, small group interviews and a facilitated session. Our work has been furthered but is still underway. We have made changes in communication, combined reviews and looking at our volunteers who generously give their time on our review boards that will support further changes.

Our community has faced a growing number of large development projects that take a lot of our volunteer and calendar time: Greylock, 10 Bethlehem Pike at the former Sunoco location, and 208-210 Rex Ave., among others. The project at 10 Bethlehem Pike is still in litigation. We are also working on guidelines to give information to those who are seeking to have a short-term rental (think Airbnbs) in a nonowner-occupied house. The city now requires these applications go through a zoning review process and this will allow a forum to hear from neighbors.

Improving residential quality of life

The Community Association uses the power of engaging our city and state officials to open a dialogue and press for a better Chestnut Hill. Some of those efforts include fighting for less glaring residential street lighting and improving our green spaces – notably Mermaid Park, Chestnut Hill West and Highland train stations, and supporting our friends at the Water Tower with their Light Up the Tower improvements. We work with our Business District partners to identify mutual challenges on a weekly basis that we tackle together before they become issues. We have launched a crosswalks task force that will continue to study and work with city officials on improvements. With a broader reach, we are a leading coalition partner of the Save Our Trains advocacy efforts fighting for sustainable transit transportation for Northwest Philadelphia. Our ongoing partnerships with the Business District, Conservancy, our schools, college, institutions like Woodmere and the library, and large employers like Temple Health help us collectively look after this community and all those who live, work, educate, shop and visit.

Updating our Germantown Avenue NCA

Another collective group accomplishment is the work to update zoning requirements on Germantown Avenue. Thanks to the executive directors, my fellow board presidents past and present as well as Matt Rutt, our VP of the Physical Division, for bringing together volunteers from the Community Association, Conservancy and Business District to study, write and refine these standards and ensure all three groups' voices were heard. The next step will be working with the Philadelphia Planning Commission and City Council to make this into law and be adopted.

In closing, it has been a busy and focused year of growth for the Community Association. On behalf of the CHCA Board, we look forward to doing even more great things for the community together.

Laura Lucas

President, Chestnut Hill Community Association