Roxborough, Pennsylvania: The Best of City & Suburb By: Meghan Keefe
Disclaimer: I couldn't fit myself in the picture with the street signs.
Central Roxborough was originally settled as "Leverington" in the 1800s.
Roxborough is inhabited by a population of 35, 239
Affordable Housing
I had the pleasure of interviewing a resident of Roxborough. He was also a student, however it wasn't at Philadelphia University or Saint Joseph's, instead he attends Thomas Jefferson in Center City, Philadelphia. As stated above, he chose to reside in Roxborough for its accessibility and proximity to downtown without having to live in downtown. He also likes rarely having to use his car unless it is to go to his family home in Maryland. He lives within walking distance to Ridge Avenue, which he frequents often.
Central Roxborough is located within the Northwest District. Here housing trends exhibit owner-to-renter-occupied housing units. The Lower Northwest has an above average housing occupancy rate and a below average vacancy rate. Between 1980 and 2010, the renter occupancy rate increased from 37.1% to 44.4%. Despite a sizable college-aged population, data show that only 2.5% of the population lives in group quarters. The lack of student dormitories creates more demand for rental units in the district.
The types of housing vary across Central Roxborough from detached, to semidetached, to attached homes with small private outdoor area. The area has a mixed urban/suburban in character.
Suburbanization in Roxborough: Neighborhood Conservation Overlay
McTownhouses with their vinyl siding and gabled roofs are replacing Roxborough's unique compact millworker townhouses and Victorian mansions as suburbanization impedes. However, residents are not just sitting aside. Instead alongside the City Planning Department, they are looking to "protect the area's 'special character, especially its walkability' while preserving its distinctive mix of rowhouses, twins, and single-family houses." through the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay. Developers are eliminating what makes Roxborough's uniquely Roxborough when they destroy lots that hold 19th century Victorian mansions. Roxborough natives are experiencing the feels of higher density while facing a new building style encroaching on their territory. Today, Roxborough residents are working towards combating the suburban mind-set that praises parking over individualistic types of housing, so while the overlay allows garages to be implemented into housing construction, they cannot be in front of the house.
Community Spaces
Gorgas Park: "Central Park"
This green space is accessible from the commercial district, both located on Ridge Avenue.
Cleanup of the park has been coordinated over the past decade to make the space more aesthetically pleasing as well as more useable by all Roxborough residents.
Gorgas Park not only offers an available space for recreational activities, but it is also host to varying types of entertainment. Popular events held at the park are the Summer Concert & Festival as well as the Rockin the Ridge Car Show that is annually held on Mother's Day weekend.
Commercial Corridor: "The Ridge"
Ridge Avenue is a commercial district offering "downtown" amenities like different types of restaurants, bars, dry cleaning, hair cuttery salons, Urgent Care, Roxborough Memorial Hospital, and so forth.
The "New Roxborough" offers independent coffee shops, yoga studios, a SuperFresh supermarket, and a Starbucks. This revitalization exists today at to the hands of the Roxborough Development Corporation. This is a nonprofit organization that began leading the change toward the Ridge Avenue Revitalization plan that was originally spoken for in 2004, however it did not break ground until 2008. The Corporation incorporated zoning overlay as a part of the Ridge Avenue Revitalization to help architecturally and visually unify the area, which had over the years has experienced a decline in its curb appeal similar to how the utilization of zoning rules was used to combat suburbanization.
Impact of Zoning Overlays: What is a Zoning Overlay?
Developmental pressure has been placed upon Roxborough and will continue. It has brought new homes that don't fit within the neighborhood taking away from the walkability of the neighborhood. Therefore the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay aims to regulate the location of parking and garages, building materials along streetfronts, contextual building heights, setbacks, and porchfronts, front yard treatments, and storefront treatments.
A fellow overlay exists, The Ridge Avenue Neighborhood Commercial Area Overlay to preserve and reinforce the pedestrian-oriented form and uses of the ridge Avenue commercial district. Current regulations prohibit car-oriented uses and impose height and setback requirements promoting walkability. The overlay plans to extend to south of Shurs Lane & Walnut Lane and north to Paoli Avenue.