This Week's Zoning Agenda

There's a Zoning hearing tomorrow night (Tuesday). Here's the gist of the agenda.

The first item is 1240 West Main (between Selma and Hartranft), what many of us know as the twin to the Gresh Mansion down the street. It was built by the brewer Adam Scheidt in 1890 and he purposefully copied the Gresh place in design. The house is one of Norristown's nicest pieces of architecture, built of Valley Forge marble.

Eadeh Enterprises now owns it and rents out 10 apartments inside--3 2-bedroom and 7 1-bedroom--plus 2800 square feet of office space. Eadeh is seeking a variance to continue 9 apartments and add 2 classrooms and an office to be used for the Headstart Program. Eadeh only own 3 properties in Norristown, one of which is the Tennis Club at 1529 Dekalb.

Item 2 is 1334 Powell, which is the Montgomery Hospital Parking Garage, owned by Einstein. New Cingular Wireless wants more antennas on top of the garage, so they're seeking a variance  to allow for a permanent facility that would consist of 12 panel style antennas. They're also proposing a screening structure that would match the existing building, which is the first sensible thing I've heard regarding the antennas. The height of the proposed antennas would be 90 feet and the top height of the screening structure would be 91 feet. I'm assuming that means from the ground, not from the top of the garage.

Once the hospital building comes down, this structure will tower over the landscape. We ought to make sure it looks decent.

If you want to protest or support or comment in any way about these projects, go to the Zoning Hearing at 7 pm tomorrow night at Municipal Hall.