HISTORY
The Fox Chase Homeowners Association (FCHA) was founded in the spring of 1992 in response to a proposal to build a large office building at the corner of Rhawn Street & Verree Road.
The office building the developers first proposed for this residentially zoned property was imposing, three stories and a basement totaling over 22,000 square feet, a far too intense use and with woefully inadequate parking for its size.
Many were against the scope of the project if not the commercial aspects. The FCHA formed as its backbone a commitment to prevent the creeping commercialization into the residential areas of our neighborhood. You have only to look at some of the previously residential areas of Castor Ave, Bustleton Ave, Cottman Ave and other arteries to see the detrimental effect of too much business and not enough residents (trash, parking problems, graffiti, hangouts).
We battled for quite some time and almost won the war were it not for some “old fashioned politics” at the last moment. This resulted in an approval for a small one-story building that is currently operating as Madison Bank.
We were probably lucky that the original developers were greedy in their proposal; otherwise this organization might not exist.
Then and now, our goal is to preserve the residential character of Fox Chase and to rally support for its improvement.
