Queen Village Approves 63-Unit Building With Affordable Homes

PHILADELPHIA — Permits have been issued for a four-story, 63-unit residential building at 1015 South 3rd St. in Queen Village, a project that shows how the city’s density bonuses turn extra height into affordable homes.

The development will span 50,615 square feet above a basement, with a shared roof deck, a green roof and parking for 21 bicycles, Philadelphia YIMBY reported Oct. 9. Summer Corner LLC is the listed owner, with Harman Deutsch Ohler Architecture designing and WYD Construction building at a stated construction cost of $3.5 million.

The math behind the unit count is the story. The RM-1 residential zoning allows 36 units by right. The developer earned 18 more through the mixed-income housing bonus and nine more through a green roof density bonus. Seven of the 63 units are classified as affordable under the mixed-income provision.

The mixed-income bonus also bought height. The building will reach 45 feet, seven feet above the base 38-foot limit for the district.

The project sits on the east side of the block between Washington Avenue and Carpenter Street, where earlier versions of the plan once envisioned 67 units. Recessed balconies will run along the second through fourth floors, and the landscape plan calls for Kousa dogwoods, Eastern red cedars and other plantings around the site’s rear yards.

For a neighborhood where new construction often sparks zoning fights, the approval shows the bonus system working as designed. The developer gets more units and more height, and the neighborhood gets seven income-restricted homes it would not otherwise have.