Monthly Archives: February 2013

Prefabricated housing-a construction method in which manufacture takes place off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled-has become common in low-cost housing developments. Up until now, that trend hasn’t spread very widely.

Hydraulic fracturing, as our readers known, is a drilling process in which water, sand and chemicals are blasted underground to break apart rock and free up trapped natural gas. The process has brought about a surge in energy production to Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado, and lowered natural gas costs.

Last Wednesday, the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a developer’s plans to knock down three buildings on the southeast corner of 15th and Walnut Streets and set up a glass, three-story building that would include the city’s first Cheesecake Factory restaurant. The demolition is set to begin within 30 days.

The Philadelphia Office of Property, in an attempt to accurately determine real estate values throughout the city, conducted an assessment that created over 600 Geographic Market Areas. These are small groupings of blocks in which properties are similar and sell for similar prices.

According to a recent study of other urban school districts’ closures by the Pew Charitable Trusts, charter schools are poised to purchase abandoned buildings. In fact, the organization found that over 40 percent of cities’ closed buildings were being reused by charter schools. Although another common reuse of such buildings is housing, repurposing schools as commercial sites often doesn’t sit well with local communities, which feel a sense of ownership of buildings

Philadelphia’s historic Navy Yard recently marked its 10,000-employee milestone by unveiling an updated master development plan. That plan predicts 1,000 new apartments, additional parks and open space, and more construction and adaptive reuse of industrial building from the Navy-era.

Our readers may be aware of the challenge currently before the state Supreme Court regarding natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. The decision involves the legality of Act 13, which has become controversial for several of its provisions. Perhaps the most controversial provision of the law is that which removes the ability of local zoning boards to make any decisions about drilling.