Some Graduate Hospital residents want new rules for construction. Among them: More trees, less vinyl siding

Community advocates in Graduate Hospital want to create a neighborhood conservation district, mandating design, materials, and tree planting for new construction or redevelopment projects in their area.

It’s the latest attempt by community groups to exert proactive influence over development and design in their corner of the city. Some such efforts are seen as shadow campaigns to defeat apartment projects, and more broadly opponents fear they add regulatory burdens to an already complex building process.

Boosters of the Southwest Center City conservation district proposal argue they are simply trying to address common ugly design quirks.

“You can’t have one zoning code that is going to work in a beneficial manner across the entirety of the city,” said Tim Kerner, an architect who helped plan the proposal. “There has to be some variation because there are variations in the neighborhoods.”

The Southwest Center City conservation district would be the ninth in the city. It would cover 1,800-to-2,000 properties between 19th Street and Gray’s Ferry Avenue.

These uncommonly applied zoning rules are meant to ensure that new and renovated buildings accord architecturally with the existing neighborhood.

Rules are set individually for each district and are regulated through the Planning Commission and City Council, unlike a historic district, which contains a uniform set of restrictions that are governed by the Historical Commission and defends against demolition.

The Southwest Center City conservation district would, among other features, ban vinyl siding from the front of new projects in the area, require that HVAC and utility meters not be visible from the street, require sloping mansard roofs — instead of the setback-bunker like structures popular in new development — and require new homes and rehabs to have a street tree planted where possible.

Unlike some more restrictive iterations of the policy, it does not seek to outlaw roof decks, although their size would be limited, and it does not include some of the more aggressive features of other such districts that are seen as a way to discourage new development.

The urbanist group 5th Square, which opposes some new historic districts and zoning overlays, reviewed the language for the Graduate Hospital conservation district and found it broadly inoffensive. The organization isn’t taking a formal stance on it.

At a meeting of the North of Washington Avenue Coalition (NOWAC) Monday night, many feared adding too many trees to the neighborhood.

Attendees said roots would push up the sidewalk, creating trip hazards, and grow through water pipes. Others claimed trees added “a creepy factor,” creating more shadows and places for criminals to hide.

“I don’t have an answer for the creepy factor,” said Kerner, but he argued trees made streets more inviting, drawing more people outdoors — thus creating a safer environment. (Audible scoffs from the audience indicated that his interlocutors were not convinced.)

South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) board chair Morgan Rodriguez argued that the proposal needed to slow down. She noted that only about 20 people were in attendance, even though the proposed rule changes would cover as many as 2,000 homes.

She claimed that only a miniscule percentage of affected property owners are aware of the proposal.

Kerner and other supporters of the proposal, who are active SOSNA members, say they have put leaflets in the mailboxes of every affected property. But they see Rodriguez’s critique as part of a broader standoff within that neighborhood group.

Since they started planning the overlay in 2021, Kerner and his allies say, the larger SOSNA board has turned over and become less friendly to the proposal.

In a board election last year, several candidates employed by OCF Realty — developer Ori Feibush’s real estate company — successfully won seats on the board. One-third of the 15-member board is now made up of people linked to OCF. Feibush himself is also on the SOSNA board, and has been since late 2023.

After the election, the SOSNA board voted down the proposal and suggested it be attenuated. That’s why Kerner and his compatriots turned to NOWAC, a smaller community group, to hold community meetings on the proposal.

“We’ve received pushback on the whole concept from certain members of the neighborhood who think it’s too restrictive,” said Murray Spencer, a conservation district supporter and SOSNA member.

Feibush has submitted his own tweaks to the conservation overlay. He says Spencer and Kerner are mistaken and that he’s not opposed to the idea, he just thinks the language needs to be clarified.

“They believe that there’s this predisposition of anyone tangentially related to development or real estate services to be opposed to something like this, and that’s just not [true],” said Feibush.

The final arbiter of the conservation district’s future will be Council President Kenyatta Johnson, who represents the area. To win his approval the organizers must show minutes from public meetings about the proposal. Four have been held so far, under NOWAC’s banner. A final meeting, this time on Zoom, will be held Oct. 21.

A representative of Council President Johnson said he’s aware of the proposal, but it hasn’t been presented to him so he has no comment.