COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON RULES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, April 29, 1999 2:40 p.m. - - - BILL 980848 - An ordinance to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps, by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located in the 35th Ward within an area bounded by Oxford Avenue, Roosevelt Boulevard, Whitaker Avenue, Godfrey Street, Tabor Road, and Martin Mills Road. BILL 990036 - Continued to the call of the Chair. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA, Chair COUNCILWOMAN AUGUSTA CLARK COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE I N D E X Richard Lombardo, City Planner . . . . . . . . 3 William T. Kramer, City Planner. . . . . . . . 17 3 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good afternoon. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Rules. Our first bill to be considered is Bill 7 No. 980848. I would ask Mr. DeMarco to please read the title of the bill.
An ordinance to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps, by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located in the 35th Ward within an area bounded by Oxford Avenue, Roosevelt Boulevard, Whitaker Avenue, Godfrey Street, Tabor Road, and Martin Mills Road.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the Committee. Richard Lombardo, from the City Planning Commission. I'm here today to speak on behalf of 980848. This bill is another community-based zoning remapping bill. It comprises -- it was 367 acres of ground in the Oxford Circle section of the City. This bill was prepared in conjunction with the local community group in Councilman 4 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 Mariano's office. As it was stated in the short title -- I'll ask Mr. Kramer to point it out -- this area is bounded by Oxford Avenue and North Roosevelt Boulevard on the east and south; Whitaker Avenue, Godfrey Street, Tabor Road, and Martin Mills back to Oxford Avenue. Though it's a large area, the changes are rather basic changes, similar to most of the remappings that we see before the City Council Rules Committee. The area on the map in purple and red -- red being the former Sears site, and the larger purple to rear -- that area, as you can see, is remaining pretty much unchanged. That's the naval supply and the former Sears site where the Home Depot and Old Navy and other retail uses are. The basic changes taking place in that area. R-2 is a portion of the naval -- that's going off to the very corner. That's zoned residential, but in fact, part of their complex is being rezoned to G-2 Industrial. But the existing housing that fronts on Oxford Avenue is being rezoned to R-9A Residential, which is a 5 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 single-family designation and reflects that that's housing. Coming down, the Oxford Village housing is being rezoned -- that's going the other way. That's being rezoned from industrial to R-12 Residential to reflect the fact that it is housing and not industrial. The Independence Brewery, which is a limited industrial use, is being rezoned from General Industrial to Limited Industrial. For the most part, the residential community in that area is being rezoned to single family classification to reflect -- from R-9 to R-9A to reflect the fact that it is, in fact, single-family homes and not multifamily homes. The Gladdings Memorial Church, which is the little red area at the corner of the map that we pointed out, is being rezoned from C to Commercial to R-9A Residential to reflect the fact that it's a church and not a commercial use. And the Houseman Recreation Center, which Mr. Kramer is pointing out, a City recreation facility, it's being rezoned to Class Recreational, again, to indicate that this is a 6 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 recreational use and not a residential use. This bill was prepared in conjunction with the community association and Councilman Mariano. For the record, at its meeting of April 15, 1999, the Planning Commission approved the bill and recommended its approval to City Council.
And there is overwhelming support from the area residents?
Yeah. There was a community meeting held -- there is someone here from the community, but there was a community meeting held. And it was our policy before we would even send the bill over for introduction that a community meeting be held in the community to inform them of what this is all about.
Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the committee? (No questions.)
Is there anyone from the community that would like to testify? (Woman in audience raises hand.)
Please 7 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 approach the table. Thank you for coming in, and if you will identify yourself for the record.
Yes. My name is Pat Stroble. I'm President of the Oxford Circle Civic Association, and we did this work. It was in May of 1998 that we presented to the community that it was an urgent need to remap and rezone this area. I asked for Councilman Mariano's support and Mr. Kramer, and they did give us that. And we presented our work in September. We worked the entire summer, we walked the entire district -- well, not the entire district. Mr. Kramer rode around some of it, but we did most of the work. The reason for this is, first of all, it was never done. And secondly, I've been getting many complaints from residents that homes were being sold and turned into duplexes and triplexes. Now, if you're not familiar with this area, our streets are very tiny, they're narrow, and there's 60 to 70 houses on some blocks. You put triplexes and duplexes in there, and we have a lot of trouble. Plus we feel it's advantageous to 8 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 the neighborhood to have homeowners as opposed to renters. In any event, this has been done. This is the first time we ever completed this. This has been tried several times, and this time, we did finish it. And we urge you to grant this proposal.
Thank you. Are there any questions from the committee? (No questions.)
I certainly want to thank you for taking the time to come in to testify and for all the work that you've done on this.
Are there any questions or comments from members of the committee? (No questions.)
Is there 9 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 anyone else to testify on this bill? (No response.)
Seeing none, the next -- (Man in audience raises hand.)
Oh, I'm so sorry. Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Fred Maurer. I'm a resident in the area. And my testimony is kind of comments on this procedure. I was informed about this zoning change by one of our resident members who works for a group with me that there was a change in the zoning. And the zoning notice was posted. The date that we found out about it was April the 19th. That's about ten days ago. Now, we found this notice for a meeting was inadequately posted. I did a survey today of all the postings in the area. We found one posted notice on Oxford Avenue. That sign was folded over by one string. You could not read it. And 10 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 it did not have a date of posting. So I don't know when it was posted. In a three-mile travel around that area, there was only one posted sign. Many of our members, our neighbors do not know that this bill is up for consideration. If it is not visible, I don't know how the community can say that they're even aware to be here. The people that I work with are interested in this thing being reconsidered by City Council that it not be accepted. Now, I found out that very little public information was given out to the community. Whether it was done with one particular group does not satisfy all the groups that are in this area. There's a requirement for public notices such as putting it in the newspapers. I read the newspapers. There are flyers that are required. There are door to door. These things are required by the Zoning Board, and I had not seen an adequate notice in all of the stages which this has occurred. Now, I think that the Zoning Board did not allow the community to participate adequately in their decision. This requires more than just a 11 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 mapping exercise. The mapping exercise that we found was simply the one that is contained in your bill for the ordinance as being adopted under this bill. Before the Zoning Board approves things, they're required to put out full-scale maps and make them available to the public. If they don't make them out to the public, I don't see how the public can be acquainted with what is happening in the community. Now, I went to the City Council and got the mandatory note ordinance, but when I read it, I cannot understand it. It is so small that I cannot understand whether it's a R or a T or a 1. I could only understand one number in the whole thing. And this says to me that it is not adequately presented to the public in a public forum. If the requirement is to put public things out, we have to make it in a forum where people can read them. This is only a six-inch piece of paper in the ordinance. There's a three-foot plan when you sit up there. I did not see this map before, so that's a brand-new experience. I think that they have failed to 12 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 present adequate information to the public even for me or for the committee members to decide. The Zoning Board also is required to do property searches. Now, I don't know of any records that were searched to find the inventory. I only hear what I've heard today, and that's the first information that I have received; I'm receiving it the same time as you are. There are requirements in there that they do a full inventory with the uses that are there, and I had liked to read that thing before I testify in City Council. Now, to get prepared for my testimony, I went to the Zoning Board this week and I asked them for the information file. There is no case file.
Excuse me, sir. I think you may be just a little confused in that you probably went to the Zoning Board. This really does not pertain to a zoning change as such. It's a remapping of the district. Do you belong to the civic association? And do you live in that community?
I live in the community, yes. 13 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848
Not to their civic association. I belong to other civic associations.
And were any of the other civic associations, did they have meetings, to your knowledge?
No. I talked to one of the officers of the Lawncrest Association, and he was not acquainted with it at the time I talked to him. That was last week when --
Well, looking at the remapping, is there anything specifically that you're objecting to or that you would like someone to explain to you what is being done?
I think at this stage, we're up for -- I'm not here for information for them. I could see what's presented to you at the same time. What I see is that this is an increase of industry in a single zone. This represents -- 14 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 50 percent of the land is being used for industry, not for housing. What I see there is they're going to increase industry in this area and reduce housing.
Excuse me, excuse me, sir, I don't mean to interrupt you. I would like Mr. Lombardo to explain to you for the record exactly what is being done. It's not increasing at all.
Yeah. What a remapping like this does is, it brings the zoning into conformance with the way the land is being used. We're not increasing the amount of land that's used industrially. There may be some fine tuning on the edges of where a property that's being used industrially is zoned residential, and conversely, where property being used residential is zoned industrial. Basically, the whole purpose of the remapping is to bring the zoning maps into conformance with how the properties are being 15 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 used. And the biggest change here is to bring the zoning for single-family row house into conformity with the way the houses are being used because right now, all those houses are zoned for multifamily; whereas, as the previous witness testified, someone could go into L&I and by filing an application, without having to go to the Zoning Board, could convert one of those house to a two- or three-family dwelling. That is the principal reason why embarked on this with the community and with Councilman Mariano's office. As a matter of fact, the old shopping center at Sears and most of the industrial was already zoned commercial and industrial before we started. The only reason we included it was just to fine-tune, as I mentioned, the edges. The basic change takes place to the east of -- I'm sorry, I can't read the map here -- where the residential area begins. Mr. Kramer can point it out. That's where basically all the changes -- the bulk of the changes are taking place. In terms of the issues of public notice, public notice is required by advertising, which is done through the clerk's office, which 16 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 you know better than I do, is done through the clerk's office. We also, in community rezonings, post the neighborhood. Notwithstanding his testimony, we put 40 posters up in that neighborhood. And when do it, and I can make it available for you, we map every place we put a poster within a neighborhood. We try to put one at almost every major intersection, at least one; and in a lot of instances, two, three or four at that intersection. And, as a matter of fact, the person that posted is standing right there. Mr. Kramer is the person that actually physically posted it. And we understand also that, I think, someone from Councilman Mariano's office went back and re-posted in instance where posters had been torn down. And the very fact that there's someone here indicated that somehow, they got notice of this hearing. But this was, you know this was done with the --
Did we understand you to say that 40 posters were posted 17 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 in the community?
I want to respond to him directly on that. My member told me ten days ago that there was one notice posted, and she surveyed the community where she lives. She lives on Godfrey Avenue, and that was the only poster she found on Oxford Avenue. When I went out and visited, I still only found one notice on Oxford Avenue. I went throughout the entire perimeter. If they posted 40 notices, I don't see any evidence that there had been a sign like a sign board or a string around a pole. I don't see the signs that I normally see in zoning where they stick 'em in the ground and they put in different colored paper. This one sign --
I think 18 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 you're confused saying the zoning notices that have to be posted days prior to a zoning 4 hearing. 5
But it's adequate 9 notice. If this was posted 10 days ahead and 10 there were 40 of them -- 11
Again, not to get in an argument, we started off by posting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 posters along Martins Mills and Oxford Avenue. Basically for the area between Tabor Road and the Boulevard, we put -- on that front, we put eight posters, which is about one every block.
Well, I was there today and I didn't see any on Martins Mill. 19 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848
Just one question. Does anybody check later to see whether the posters remain? What happens if the posters are put on and youngsters or anybody else just tears them down? Is there any system that the Planning Commission uses?
Councilman, I think, in this case, the District Council office in this case did re-post. Normally, this is just like a belt and suspenders. We were putting the posters up to give additional notice other than the newspaper, but we don't go back outside and put 'em up again; we put 'em up one time and don't go back outside.
The only requirement of the bill is that it be advertised. It has been more of a traditional thing of the Rules --
Yeah, I believe it was. 20 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 As any other bill, I mean, that's handled by the clerk's office. It's been sort of a tradition with the Rules Committee that these community rezonings also get physically posted, but it's not a law; it's just something that's been done as a matter of form for a number of years.
It's a matter of style. I mean, you have style and style says you also put it in the newspaper and you call multi community meetings, not a single community meetings, you have multi community meetings. And I don't know that all the communities were consulted in this. It's a large community, relatively-speaking. Well, I'll address the other things. The posting that I recognized is a supplemental thing, but they do have a thing. If I read the Northeast Breeze, and that's a local community newspaper there, and I don't see a notice in there, then I have to assume that's the only notice that I see from the poster. What I see there in their presentation Martin's Mill Road particularly, and I had an office on that road so I know that area a little 21 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 more familiar. They're removing houses up there. The size that's shown here indicates that it will be reduced to one line of houses. There's more than one line of houses up there. So I question whether or not they're removing houses from this plan. Whether there are houses up there is variance and nonconforming things, I don't know. Without inventory available before I talk to you, I don't know that they were conforming. All I can see from the maps, and I tried to read them, if I had those things available from the Zoning Office, from anybody who had known many variances are up there, then I could intelligently respond. What I do see, and you should be able to observe that here, is that there's a little corner up there on Oxford Avenue with a line around it. That line -- I'm not so sure if that's the one that they're referring to. They're changing it to residential. What I do observe right along Oxford Avenue, there is a housing project -- two housing projects. The only open space right across from that intersection, where this sign was posted, is another building available sign to make another 22 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 construction in that area. So from what I see, Oxford Avenue is going to be -- from what I observe today, not from his map. What I observe today is that they're adding -- impacting on this community by excessive overdevelopment. I think some of these developments should be channelled into other areas. We have Empowerment Zones. We have areas that are here that are already designed for some of these things. I think it would be smarter if we took our residential stock and enhanced them rather than enhancing the businesses that want to locate in our residential areas. That's our quality of life, and I see it being lost up here. I think I've pretty well explained it. I think my opinion could be echoed by more if they have would had adequate time to present in this. I belong to three different community members, and we had discussions last week about other subjects. This was never introduced because they didn't know that this was a pertinent subject for that community.
I really want 23 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Bill 980848 to thank you for coming in to testify, and I am certain that if you have any further concerns and so do your neighbors, I'm certain that if you called your District Councilman, he would be more than happy to meet with you and further go into what the changes are that are being made, and I am certain that he would be asking someone from the City Planning Commission to attend the meeting with him. So I believe it will be the consensus of the committee to report this out today. You will have two weeks. It could be held on the calendar before we take a final vote on it. My suggestion to you is that you call your District Councilman so that a meeting could be scheduled if that is what you so desire.
You're welcome. Is there anyone else to testify? (No response.)
Seeing none, I would like to announce that Bill No. 990036 will be continued until the call of the chair. 24 4/29/99 RULES COMMITTEE - Public Meeting This concludes our public hearing. - - -
We will now go into our public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Madam Chair, I move that Bill No. 980848 be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 980848 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation. All in favor will signify by saying aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it, the motion is carried. This concludes our public meeting. Thank you all very much. (Adjourned at 3:02 p.m.) - - - 25 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, April 29, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON RULES BILL NO. 980848 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter