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City Council members: Keep your councilmanic prerogative out of my district
A debate over zoning changes that could be beneficial in some parts of the city and halt development in others. Ice cream shops, artist studios, community gardens and group homes would all get the same treatment.
City Council members: Keep your councilmanic prerogative out of my district
In a City Council Rules Committee hearing today, a handful of district City Council members found themselves in a somewhat unaccustomed position: Their various councilmanic prerogatives — the forces that allow neighborhood-specific legislation (like allowing a giant balcony over the sidewalk on an already rowdy bar, say) to sail through Council often undisputed — were encroaching on one another's territory.
That is to say, zoning legislation introduced by Councilman Brian O'Neill, to create a new type of commercial district, to limit or prohibit certain uses (including art studios, pet supply, hardware, takeout food, ice cream shops and more), in other commercial districts and to reduce building heights, struck many council members as having potentially enormous impacts on each of their districts — and not always to positive effect.
For example, Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez has been trying to find ways to nurture a creative economy along the American Street corridor; O'Neill's bill would require artist studios and similar uses to go through the burdensome process of obtaining a zoning variance. "This impacts 60 percent of my commercial area," she said, adding that she hadn't had sufficient time to review the legislation. "I'm very uncomfortable with this level of impact on my district without me having a chance to really understand it."
"That councilmanic prerogative is so vital because we know our district," she added. And this bill "could be detrimental to my community development process."
Some council members — Bill Green, Curtis Jones — stood against the zoning changes partly on principle, given that the zoning code is so new and was the result of a four-year, intensive process that involved Council. "I'm stunned as to why this didn't come up three years ago," Jones said.
O'Neill's own district would be least-affected by the legislation. But O'Neill, along with Councilwoman Cindy Bass, noted that the legislation would be important in their districts to check the proliferation of group homes. "I have more personal care homes in my district than probably anywhere in the city," O'Neill said. "We have to do no harm and be protective, and I don't think we can wait a year." O'Neill's legislation would return zoning to its previous usage restrictions, rather than picking on specific industries, like personal care homes, directly: He thought that was more fair.
Still, community corridor managers and community gardening advocates feel like they're being caught in the crossfire. Amy Laura Cahn of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia said about 20 percent of community gardens fall within the zoning in question. Robyn Mello of Historic Fairhill and Philly Food Forests testified that of the 13 community gardens she works on, at least 10 lots across four of the gardens would be considered in violation of the new zoning code.
And Village of Arts and Humanities executive director Elizabeth Grimaldi told Council, "91 percent of the blocks around the Germantown/Lehigh corridor suffer from vacancy and blight. ... We are providing an alternative solution. Please do not obstruct our ability to bring additional funds and resources into Philadelphia."
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