Planning Commission Round-Up

Recap of topics covered at Tuesdays Planning Commission Meeting upstairs at 1515 Arch Street.
The Agenda:

- SugarHouse Casino expansion, (covered in yesterdays post), executing a first of several expansion projects.  This first phase will increase the size of the casino and construct a new parking garage.

-Chinatown Tower, a "mixed-use," 11-story, boldly-colored building, with retail stores, rental hall, nonprofit offices and up to 8 stories of apartments.  Presented by John Chin, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, for the vacant northwest corner of 11th and Vive, formerly owned by PennDOT and the Redevelopment Authority.

- Umbria Village, by JERC Partners, 168 apartments in 16 four-story buildings, 199 parking spaces, 35 bike spaces, a 2-story clubhouse-pool house, at 1 Parker Avenue in Roxborough, adjacent to the Ivy Ridge Station above the old Manayunk.  This is a smaller version of a previously approved plan.

- Navy Yard, near Tastykake Baker Factory, Liberty Property Trust is dividing a 12-acre site into separate 4 and 8 acre sites for future commercial buildings.

- Closing the end of Unruth Ave. for the North Delaware Trail and Greenway Project in Wissinoming; and separately closing Ashland St. along Frankford Creek, which could affect a second nearby trail.