Draft zoning code on fast track to City Council

ZCC Regular Session

ZCC members, staff, and consultants are working hard to get a final draft of the zoning code to City Council before the end of the year. Revisions to the September 2010 draft are being posted on www.zoningmatters.org as feedback is reviewed and discussed by the ZCC work plan committee. The most recent changes were presented by consultants today, which raised concerns about the November 12 deadline for comments. The public wants time to analyze what they consider to be major revisions. “It’s a fast moving train,” ZCC chair Alan Greenberger said, “The deadline is fixed, but we may decide that particular issues are still open.”

One of the biggest changes presented today is a revised structure for floor area ratio (FAR) bonuses. In the three Center City districts, base densities and the maximums permitted using bonuses were adjusted to better accommodate transitions between zones, expand capacity around major transit hubs, and avoid speculative property investments based on unrealistic demand. The maximum FAR possible is now 2400 percent of the area of the lot in specifically mapped areas around the three major stations – Market East, Suburban, and 30th Street. Prior drafts of the bonus provisions allowed unlimited FAR within 1,200 feet of those stations. Recent changes to the menu of bonus categories are based on an economic analysis by Michael Samuels of Clarion/Samuel Associates (click here to review memo).

Other revisions were also highlighted in today’s presentation. New standards for use variances are now better aligned with Pennsylvania law and make the criteria for such variances more restrictive. But ZCC member Richard DeMarco suggested that the city may not want to limit the ability of obtaining use variances in transitioning areas – places that have totally lost their viability as residential neighborhoods, for example. Other sections of the code were deleted, such as the provision that permitted minor adjustments to dimensional standards by L&I. The standards themselves were adjusted to capture the majority of dimensional inconsistencies, so that such permit adjustments will not be necessary.

The next full draft will be released at a special meeting of the ZCC on December 1. This draft will include footnotes about how the draft has been reorganized, if entire sections have been moved for example, and redlines where specific language has changed. Minor grammatical corrections will not be highlighted.

View the PowerPoint presentation of all recent changes. Track the latest revisions at www.zoningmatters.org.