Construction begins on 7th and Dudley — in area that used to not have an RCO

There is a new infill project underway at the corner of 7th and Dudley streets.

Permits were granted back in late 2013 for the erection of two three-story structures at 1926 and 1930 S. 7th St. The buildings are not to exceed 35 feet in height and look to be multifamily dwellings.

As you can see from the pictures, the area was spruced up a bit before construction with the installation of Mural Arts project “Southeast by Southeast” in 2012. However, multiple CLIP violations were levied against the lots that encompass this corner.

We’ve brought South 7th Street to your attention in the past, partly due to development in the area but also because we had noticed a lack of representation at the neighborhood level. From our story last year about neighbors’ effort to organize a Registered Community Organization:

We also called the area a civic “no-man’s land” since there was no registered community organization that would speak on behalf of the area’s residents (which some people took offense to on our Facebook page) when former single-family homes are split up into apartments.

The topic of civic expansion was on the table for discussion Tuesday night ostensibly because of [Councilman Mark] Squilla’s desire to address the recent boom in development – mostly along the lines of converting single-family dwellings into multi-family dwellings – in what is currently an area not represented by any RCO.

How times have changed. The Seventh Street Community Civic Association was established last summer. It’s website, however, hasn’t been updated since November. But lo and behold, the East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association expanded its eastern boundary recently from 8th to 6th Street.

Now, the last unrepresented square of the eastern side of South Philly is from 4th to 6th, Mifflin to Snyder.

– James Jennings is the founder of the blog Pennsporter — a site dedicated to exploring the neighborhood  from Washington to Snyder, the Delaware to Fourth.