PHILADELPHIA —Mayor Cherelle L. Parker today transmitted to City Council a package of bills designed to help advance the Parker Administration’s H.O.M.E. Initiative to build and preserve 30,000 units of housing. Specifically, the legislative package begins the implementation of the Mayor’s Executive Order 3-25, which directed the Department of Planning and Development to compile actionable internal and external stakeholder recommendations for reducing the time, cost, and uncertainty of developing housing in the City of Philadelphia by improving the City’s approval processes.
“We have many miles to go to achieve our goals, and these bills are steps in the right direction. Now, our partners in City Council can keep us moving forward by introducing and passing the bills without delay,” said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. “The bills make common-sense improvements, such as by freeing up space for housing that the Zoning Code currently requires be used for parking.”
“The bills transmitted today are in what we are calling Tier 1, which means that stakeholder feedback has been gathered and incorporated, drafting is complete, and the bills are ready for introduction by Council,” said Jessie Lawrence, Director, Department of Housing and Development. “The Administration housing team is currently at work on Tier 2 legislative projects, which need additional internal discussion and evaluation before we can present them to stakeholders and elected officials. Legislation, Executive Orders, and changes to City agency regulations are all tools we can and will use to help achieve our goals under the H.O.M.E. Initiative.”
The package consists of five bills, four of which amend the Zoning Code and a fifth accelerating land transfers into the Philadelphia Land Bank, including:
- Curbing Parking Requirements: Increase flexibility, decrease costs, and encourage higher density residential development in the city’s transit-rich core by relaxing current requirements for including parking in such developments.
- Authorizing Duplexes: Create a new RTA-2 zoning district allowing two-family rowhomes to reduce the need for zoning variances legalizing such homes.
- Standardizing Zoning: Simplify residential development in the Fifth Councilmanic District by removing zoning restrictions unique to the district, thereby bringing it into alignment with zoning citywide.
- Making Technical Improvements to the Code: Clarify provisions throughout the Zoning Code that internal and external stakeholders have identified as confusing or incorrect.
- Expediting Interagency Property Transfers: Remove the requirement that City Council must pass a resolution every time publicly owned property is transferred into the Land Bank from City agencies. This bill would not affect disposition of property from the Land Bank
“The bill streamlining the movement of public property into the Land Bank has our agency’s enthusiastic support,” said Angel Rodriguez, Executive Director, Philadelphia Land Bank. “Obtaining property more quickly helps set the Land Bank up for success in putting that property back into productive use, as we are doing so effectively through our Turn the Key homeownership program.”