Chestnut Hill Community Association endorses expansion plan for Greene Street Consignment

Chestnut Hill Community Association on Thursday night will back Greene Street Consignment’s amended plan to expand its building into the back parking lot.

The Chestnut Hill store at 8524-26 Germantown Ave. is applying for a zoning variance with the city of Philadelphia.

The original proposal by the building’s owner Sanjiv Jain was to expand the store to have 100-percent coverage of the 100-foot lot – but it was rejected by the city. At present, 50-percent of the lot is used by the building.

CHCA’s Land Use Planning and Zoning co-chair Larry McEwen presented says the new plan is for Jain to expand the building to a maximum of 90-percent lot coverage, thus retaining 10 feet for rear-yard access by service vehicles. He noted this would preclude parking for tenants or business owners.

Other conditions would include code-compliant rear exits for both the first floor commercial use and second floor residential use, and the development of a rear façade that meets the specifications of both CHCA’s Development Review Committee and the Chestnut Hill Historical Society.

“We feel that there has been a significant improvement in the proposal and we’re satisfied with that,” said McEwen.

Jain said the expansion is indicative of the strong business that his tenant Greene Street Consignment is experiencing.