Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. We will now consider Bill No. 110182.
An ordinance authorizing the plotting upon City Plan Nos. 258 and 270 of two rights-of-way for sewer and drainage purposes in the area lying southeast of Tacony Street and southwest of former Vankirk Street, within the property formerly known as the Frankford Arsenal.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. 5/12/11 - STATED - 2ND READING The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 110183.
An ordinance authorizing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan Nos. 196, 197, and 305 by relocating the southwesterly curbline of Allegheny Avenue from a point approximately two-hundred feet southeast of Richmond Street to Delaware Avenue.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Councilman DiCicco. 5/12/11 - STATED - 2ND READING COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Aye.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. We will now consider Bill No. 110232.
An ordinance amending Chapter 12-3000 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Use Of An Automated Red Light Enforcement System to 5/12/11 - STATED - 2ND READING Prevent Red Light Violations," by authorizing the installation of red light enforcement systems at the intersection of Island Avenue at Lindbergh Boulevard.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The last bill to be considered is Bill No. 110260.
An ordinance amending Section 9-213 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Farmers' Markets," by adding a permissible location on the sidewalk of the west side of the 1600 block of East Moyamensing Avenue.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill 5/12/11 - STATED - 2ND READING pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
5/12/11 - STATED - 2ND READING Councilman Kelly.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. Does the Chief Clerk have any additional resolutions on today's Calendar?
Thank you. That concludes our Calendar for today. Are there speeches on the part of the minority? (No response.)
Are there speeches on the part of the majority? The Chair recognizes
Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to invite all the members of City Council and their staff to join the Philadelphia Cultural Fund in the Caucus Room this afternoon at 1 o'clock. They will present the Councilman David Cohen Award to two wonderful organizations, COSACOSA Art At Large and Wagner Institute of Science. As you may recall, Councilman Cohen was a lifelong advocate and supporter of the Philadelphia arts and culture community. The Cohen Award was created in 2006 in the memory of David Cohen, who died in 2005. There will be refreshments served around 12:30. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to take this milestone that Philadelphia achieved yesterday. I want to congratulate Councilman DiCicco on the Zoning Code Commission, which he championed, sending over to City Council its preliminary report, which concludes step one in the City's four-step zoning reform process. This is a historic development. We would not have reached this point without the leadership of Councilman DiCicco and the Councilmembers who voted for zoning reform four years ago. The excellent, diligent and collaborative work that's been done on the proposed Zoning Code by the staff of the Planning Commission, the staff of the Zoning Code Commission and the Administration over the past three-plus years has put us in a position to enact the first major revision of the Zoning Code in almost 50 years. This is extremely important for the future of our city's development. moving this process to the next step, review by City Council of the majority and minority reports adopted by the Commission yesterday. As we move to this next step, there seems to be a school of thought that Council should receive the Commission's majority report like a tablet passed down from on high and not there to question it. At the same time, most Commission members yesterday stated that the report was not a perfect document. Obviously this is not an intellectually consistent position. This is contrary to both our duty as legislators and to the iterative four-step structure of the Zoning Code reform process whereby Council is charged under the law with holding hearings on the Commission's preliminary report and sending suggested changes back to the Commission. The Commission then has a chance to consider Council's suggestions and incorporate it sees fit in its final report, which is sent back to Council for a vote. In the fourth and final step of the Zoning Code reform process, Council has to vote to approve, vote to disapprove or table the final report. Council cannot amend the final report. Councilmembers, especially District Councilmembers, have important insights to add to the proposed Code. One of the issues we are going to have to grapple with is how we link the revision of the Zoning Code text with the revision of the Zoning Maps for individual neighborhoods. As the Commission's consultant said yesterday, in every city that has undertaken Zoning Code revision, there is disagreement among reasonable people about combining textural changes in the Zoning Code with a remapping or instead passing the Code and remapping later. The minority report, which received nine votes, proposes the first become effective in a neighborhood once the land district in the neighborhood is remapped. The majority report proposes the second approach, the Code would become effective immediately and remapping would follow over a period of years afterwards. The Zoning Code Reform report which has been sent to us has been written at the 10,000 foot level, with scant attention, until the last few months, of the impact on the ground. The minority report was motivated by concern that under the majority report approach, automatic conversion would take place that could open transitioning neighborhoods to land use changes and development that may be wholly inconsistent with the direction the neighborhood is heading or where residents and planning professionals want it to head. This would happen without any public input, and the new uses or development would become a vested right between the adoption of the new Code and the area being remapped. The concern warrants both serious attention and serious-minded efforts to address it. The proposal in the minority report is just one approach to addressing the issue.
It could be done within a few short years with resources provided to the Planning Commission for that purpose. Or we can attempt to identify and correct the unintended collateral consequences in our recommendations back to the ZCC. To be clear one more time, I support the Code and voted yesterday to send it here. I am confident that working collaboratively with stakeholders and thinking creatively we can find effective solutions to this issue. I intend to be Council's strongest advocate for moving this process forward and for Council ultimately enacting a transparent, sustainable, development and respects the character and charm of our neighborhoods. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. Today I want to introduce two special guests, one Mr. Emmanuel Karam. He is Vice-Chair of the Humane Care Society in Pakistan, and with him is Mr. Kevin Poole, his United States coordinator, who worked with Lu when he was in Harrisburg many, many years ago. These gentlemen are here as part of the Humane Care Society, and they fight for women in crisis in Pakistan and they fight for funding for vaccine, for hepatitis for children who are similarly affected. So they try to do their part, and certainly we want to welcome them to our city and wish them well.
If they would stand, we would like to recognize you. (Applause.)
The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you, Madam President. After that generous and heartfelt endorsement from my colleague Councilman Green, I have since decided to enter the race for the First Councilmanic District. Maybe as an independent, you never know. But on a serious note, last night I had the opportunity to attend a gala event for Philadelphia's newest public park addition, the Race Street Pier. It was an event to thank those who have made financial contributions and other contributions to make that pier a success. Today at 2 o'clock, there is an official ribbon cutting. If your schedules permit, I would encourage all down there. It is a magnificent piece of public space that is the beginning, in my opinion, of many more great opportunities for the City of Philadelphia along the Central Delaware waterfront. It's part of what we started a few years back when Mayor Street was in the final days of his last term and he signed the Executive Order that kick-started the Penn Praxis public debate over how to develop our waterfront. This is the beginning. This is the first of the major investment that the City has made. It's a little over six and a half million dollars, I think, we're invested. But it is magnificent. As the Mayor said last night, it is spectacular. So I would encourage all of you who can get down there today for the ribbon cutting. And if you're not able to get down there, at some point over the next few weeks, stop by. You'll be proud of what we all were able to accomplish. you, Madam President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to congratulate Councilman DiCicco on his leadership, and run, baby, run. I just want to comment and add to the statement of Councilman Green. We have had a number of conversations with Councilmen Green and O'Neill about the issues they've raised in the Zoning Commission process, and my staff person, Marion Johnson, who everybody knows in Philadelphia as Ms. Zoning, she knows it backwards and forwards and has represented the Ninth Councilmanic District for the last 22 years very well. And we are very, very concerned about the process in terms of some of the issues they want to leave until a future time. I will tell you, it will not serve the district, at least my district, because I know about my district, in terms of some of the rules that are set, which would allow conversions of these large estates based on ground, without any input from the neighborhood. A couple weeks ago I walked through the Olney area and two streets, the 5500 block of Fairhill and 5500 block of Marshall. There have been any number of illegal conversions from single-family homes to multi-family homes, and nobody is paying attention to what's going on in the neighborhood. So you can destroy a community, unless you have a process or rules that guide what happens, because I asked the L&I Commissioner, Now, if all of these properties have been illegally converted, do you make the person revert them back to single-family dwelling? She's going to answer. I just asked her yesterday, so I'm sure she's going to have an answer for me. But what are the unintended consequences of us waiting? the day, it would have a devastating impact on our neighborhoods. It's not just Councilman O'Neill's neighborhood. It's my neighborhood. It's Chestnut Hill, where they too have the same issue of larger houses on larger lots that can be converted, without any input from the community. So we have in the Ninth Councilmanic District preserved and tried to preserve the character of the neighborhood and not changed the character of the neighborhood. I think that we ought to take this zoning issue seriously and not act in haste and repent in leisure. And I, for one, will be very much involved with this, because I do care about where I live. I care about other neighborhoods of the same character, and I think we ought to be careful, because in five years you look up and you have a lot of unintended consequences and they say, Oops, we made whole process has been fine, but I think there has been no consideration of what we care for in the neighborhoods. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Are there any other speeches on the part of the majority? (No response.)
Seeing no one, the Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, May 26th, 2011, 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, May 26th at 10:00 a.m. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries. Thank you all very much. (Stated Meeting adjourned at 11:50 a.m.) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on May 12, 2011, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)