The Francisville section of lower North Philly has remained largely untouched by the sort of development that tends to usher in gentrification. But at a neighborhood meeting on Friday, 95 percent of attendees voted to allow chic developer Onion Flats to build a super-sustainable five-story residential building at the long-overgrown corner of 19th and Wylie streets. The voters were roughly two-thirds black, and at least 50 percent were longtime residents, says Kristin Szwajkowski, board member of the Francisville Neighborhood Development Corp. (FNDC). “I was surprised that the neighborhood voted so overwhelmingly for the plan,” she says.
The vote could be rendered meaningless if various authorities don’t like the idea. The FNDC plans to write a letter to Councilman Darrell Clarke urging him to support it.
As for concerns that the Onion Flats project is a harbinger of Northern Liberties 2: “This is our last big development parcel,” says Szwajkowski. “We don’t have a ton of empty space like Northern Liberties did.”