They paved paradise,
put up a parking lot …
- Joni Mitchel
Hi, I am your neighbor, Meg De Brito
I own one of the adjacent houses close to the proposed parking lot in our East Mount Airy neighborhood.
I share my perspective below on why I think this re-zoning opportunity for Merakey Corporation is not in support of the people or the beauty of the neighborhood we share.
Please join the
Public Meeting
February 12th at 2 pm
to speak on behalf of your own perspective and
communicate what you think is best for the neighborhood to the Zoning Board of Adjustments.
Your attendance is important to share your voice in your community.
Meeting ID: 820 8829 2595
Passcode: 634842
The Zoning Board application is for 29 - 31 East Mt Airy Ave has been filed by the lawyer and landscape designers for Merakey. The application looks to re-zone a residential property into a commercial parking lot.
This would allow the removal of the 1890 twin residential buildings, made of Wissahickon shist stone, built in a line of 3 ‘show homes’ from the turn of the century creation of the East Mt Airy neighborhood when the land shifted from bucolic to a streetcar suburb.
These 3 twin homes at the “T” intersection of Chew & East Mt Airy Ave. were part of a bursting era that developed this neighborhood.
The buildings they would remove begin to unravel a connective row of houses and lead to more opportunities to shift zoning in our neighborhood to a new commercial construction scale of this current bursting era of development.
The parking lot would remove multiple preservation heritage trees and demolish a type of local stone structure that can not easily be rebuilt.
6 Parking Lots
The one-block radius already has a Merakey staff parking lot, 2 public parking lots, and multiple private parking lots.
None of these parking lots are ever full of cars. Both corners offer handicap crossing, and Marakey could shift a metered spot in front of their building for closer handicap availability.
Merkaly could look to continue renting parking spaces from these other adjacent parking lots, which would share some of their ‘impact’ profit with local small businesses on Germantown Ave.
Chew & Traffic
The entry of this parking lot will add an increase of challenge for this corner, where there is already a higher rate of car accidents due to the speed of traffic and the “T”.
This intersection has more pedestrians than other blocks, which puts walking people at higher risk.
How do you create health by paving land rather than caring for an existing ecosystem?
The plans that were drafted for landscaping the parking lot do not offer the same ecosystem values that currently exist on site:
The current established tree root landscape helps manage water within the landscape to prevent flooding.
The root system of planted trees will engage the soil compaction of pavement and cars, so they will not be able to establish an equitable root system in comparison to what is there.
The pavement will increase heat on-site by 30% when the parking lot is installed. (statement by their Landscape Architect on our recorded community call)
On a sunny day, pavement can go up to 40%-60% hotter than the air temperature.
The installation of a new landscape will remove the shade in the area and increase the heat, on average, by 25% to 35%.
Heritage trees are keepers of animals, insets, and soil-based fungi that keep a balanced ecosystem; a parking lot will not create the same layers of living systems that align with the guidelines the Philly Tree Plan, the Tree Tenders Program, or Greenworks Philadelphia.
a national corporation using the word ‘impact’ for investors:
Merakey is a large corporation that operates services for addiction recovery, disability, and autism.
They are one of the largest national developmental behavioral health systems 501c-3.
This location is a health resource for a larger Philadelphia community, but are they considering the health and well-being of the direct local neighborhood?
A building renovation and a residential demolition to install a parking lot are based on an analysis of their operational needs to meet a profit margin.
Merakey just renovated the building at 27 East Mt Airy Ave without the proper zoning change for a parking lot in their residential property at 29-31 East Mt Airy Ave.
They have owned these homes for 30 years and they used southern home #29 until 2 years ago as an office and storage facility.
Merakey’s plans have been declined in re-zoning of their residential property for close to one year. If they re-zone it breaks the clear line between residential and commercial corridors.
They already have parking lots associated with their building that are accessible from Germantown Ave. and East Mt Airy Ave.
Has their leadership team traveled to this location to do the proper in-person, place-based analysis of the location and resources they were looking to build?