When you think about pockets in our city that are undergoing a transformation, Belmont is probably not the first neighborhood that comes to mind. But we’ve been spending more time in this neighborhood of late, covering small and medium sized projects along Lancaster Avenue. Some projects, like the 12 unit building at 40th & Lancaster or some of the new buildings we’ve covered near 44th & Lancaster, are located directly on the Lancaster Avenue corridor. This week though, we saw a proposal for a 20 unit building a couple blocks off Lancaster.

Developers came to the ZBA this week with plans to demolish a pair of vacant homes at 714 and 716 N 43rd St. and replace them with a four story apartment building on the combined lot. Though this block is quite close to a commercial corridor, this stretch of 43rd Street is zoned almost exclusively for single family homes, after a downzoning bill in 2023 removed much of the multi-family zoning in the area . Adding 20 new units without parking might be a non-starter for some RCOs, but the West Belmont Civic Association has endorsed the project. There have been examples of other projects that have sought a similar variance, like the 6 units slated for 708 N 43rd Street, or the mixed-use project down the block at Fairmount Avenue.

The two lots are amply sized but weirdly shaped, measuring 20′ wide and 180′ deep. This offers a lot of square footage, but fully utilizing all that land is a bit tricky. As we can see from the plans from Designblendz, combining the lots allows for a larger footprint while still ensuring all units have decent access to light and air. The units in the middle of the building will have windows in both the bedrooms and living rooms, but only the units at the front and rear of the building will have their own semi-enclosed outdoor spaces on their balconies.

The use of brick, the partial porch, the mansard roof, and the front setback matching the primary front facade of the adjacent building will all do a good job blending this new building with what’s left of the surrounding legacy buildings. The design feature that really caught our eye was the inclusion of an elevator. With much of West Philadelphia’s older housing stock ill-suited for residents with mobility restrictions and many newer buildings only offering stairs, it’s impressive that all of the 13 one-bedroom and 7 two-bedroom apartments in this building will be accessible. As the development team pointed out, elevators extremely costly, and we agree that the owners taking on the added cost is a strong point in favor of this project.

This property has been vacant and depressed for long enough, and this plan would reinvigorate a dormant property in a neighborhood that’s starting to see investment for the first time in decades. The ZBA ultimately decided to hold off on voting on this project until next week – until then, we’ll hope that this RCO supported project eventually gets the green light without any complicating conditions.