Communication 060917

November 30, 2006 TO THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA: I am herewith returning to you as disapproved Bill Number 060582-A, which would amend the Zoning Code to permit the operation of licensed day care facilities in certain commercial districts and as accessory uses to churches and places of worship in certain residential districts. This legislation has the potential to fill a critical need in our City, increasing the number, convenience and safety of day care facilities, while at the same time brining many day care facilities into the licensing and registration system designed to ensure the safety of our children. This bill also would allow day care operators to avoid the cost and bureaucracy of the Zoning Board process, as the bill would permit day care as of right. Unfortunately, this bill, as amended on the floor of Council prior to final passage, would carve out an exception by excluding two Council Districts - the Sixth and the Tenth - from the expansion of this permitted use. The attached maps showing the ten irregularly shaped Council Districts and the Roosevelt Blvd. as it passes through the five districts in the northeast highlight the problem of Council District based zoning. Under this legislation, the controls would vary every several blocks, permitting daycare facilities on one side of the Boulevard, but not the other, without restriction, or not at all. At other points along the Boulevard, facilities would be permitted on one corner of an intersection, but not the other three. Clearly, the results of the carve out it a system devoid of either rhyme or reason. Unfortunately, this continues and exacerbates the irrational practice of District-by-District zoning. Our Zoning Code is rapidly becoming an unpredictable patchwork quilt of peculiar exceptions and overlays, rather than one that supports the development of reasonable and predictable zoning controls that apply uniformly throughout the City. Moreover, apart from the general irrationality of these "District carve-outs," when it comes to the safety of our children the proposed exceptions make even less sense. Parents and children throughout this City deserve safe and convenient day care. I urge the Council to pass an appropriate bill that responds to this critical need. Sincerely, John F. Street Mayor