Temple parking garage proposal goes to city council

Temple University is one step closer to building a mixed-use parking structure on a dirt lot that is informally used for parking now.

There would be retail on the ground floor of the 1,000-car structure, which would be built on the block bounded by 11th, Warnock and Berks streets and Montgomery Avenue, if city council okays the institutional development district amendment that the planning commission gave its approval to Tuesday.

Temple representatives said the garage would alleviate neighborhood concerns that Temple students and staffers are taking up all the neighborhood street parking. The planning commission received letters of support from several neighborhood associations in the vicinity.

But representatives from one neighborhood, Yorktown, said that they were not consulted and they wanted to talk to the university about a potential community benefits agreement. After some town-and-gown back-and-forth, the planning commission said that the issues between Yorktown and Temple were not germane to the question before them.  However, since council would not be voting on the IDD amendment until after its summer recess, there was time for the university to talk to the neighbors. So commissioners decided to send a favorable recommendation to council, with the caveat that Temple meet with Yorktown at least once over the summer.

Contact the reporter at kgates@planphilly.com