If not, thank you so much for your testimony for being here today. Anyone else to testify on Bill No. 241055? (No response.)
Okay. Seeing none, can we have the Clerk call forward the next panel and bill.
5 -- or 062, please Paula Brumbelow Burns, Director of Legislation for Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Please come forward. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Okay. So that was 241062. And up first, Paula, please state your name for the record and proceed.
Good afternoon. I'm Paula Brumbelow Burns, Director of Legislation for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I am here to testify on Bill No. 241062, introduced into City Council on November 14, 2024 by Councilmember Squilla. Bill No. 241062 amends the Philadelphia Zoning Code by creating a new PCH, Philadelphia Chinatown Overlay District in an area bounded by Vine Street, 9th Street, Cuthbert Street, 11th Street, Arch Street and 13th Street in the Chinatown neighborhood of the Central Planning District. This bill will remove the Chinatown section of the CTR Overlay and create a standalone overlay for the community with the existing regulations. The bill 22 will create supplemental use controls to limit adult-oriented uses, assembly and entertainment and smoking lounges. There will be a height limit of 65 feet and the only density bonus that can be earned is for mixed-income housing with an additional height to be kept at a total of 125 feet. New housing developments of over units will 9 be required to meet a certain 10 standard to include affordable dwelling units. There will be a new limitation on restrictions to the square footage for retail and commercial spaces, and it aligns with the Philadelphia 2035 Citywide Vision by maintaining the scale of the neighborhood and preserving the cultural heritage of the neighborhood. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission will consider Bill No. 241062 at its public meeting on December 5, 2024 and will recommend the bill for approval. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.
Thank you, Ms. Brumbelow, and appreciate your work and effort on this. There was a couple other conversations we had. And I know there's an administrative amendment in this one. We received some other additional requests from Chinatown this morning that we would like to discuss. But as doing this, is there also an ability to look at and that we spoke about as far as franchises, looking at franchises in the overlay?
It is something that we are able to look at. We wanted to work with the Law Department to make sure because this would be something so new to Philadelphia that we want to make sure that we're covering it within the scope of state law and local law. So I'm not the Law Department and I don't want to speak too fully on all of that. And it's just we did not get to that in time because of the turnaround, but we always say that legislation zoning is a living document and Council has the right to update the Code as they see fit at any time so --
And we are happy to continue working to get to that place.
We as Council also do amendments of bills as we go through and seeing what works and what doesn't work. Like I said, we did receive some request right before the hearing today. So what we would like to do is try to get this out of Committee, work with PCDC and the community to set up a time and a meeting to go over with you and them and possibly amend this on the floor in order to pass it out before the end of the year. Is that something you'd be willing to do?
We are going to try -- I have a copy of the list that got sent last night. I did not have enough time to fully review it today. There is some of the things in there that we may be able to incorporate. Some of the uses they've listed are already not permitted in all of the zoning districts, so I think we may have some easy things that we can address quickly. Some of the issues were not zoning-related. It may be larger scale projects or Streets requirements. So we're still working through that and we just were not able to do it in the short time today.
So the goal is hopefully we'll meet one day next week and we could iron that out. So thank you so much for your time.
Thank you and thank you for your time and your testimony today. And can we have our next witness come forward to testify. Mr. John Chin from PCDC. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Sure. John Chin, C-h-i-n, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. So again, Madam Chair, thank you for allowing me to speak today. I want to say that PCDC is an RCO for Chinatown. We also are a community development corporation and the planning agency for Chinatown. We fully support this zoning overlay that has been introduced by our District Councilman, Councilman Mark Squilla, with some suggested amendments to the bill. But overall this zoning overlay does align with the Philadelphia 2035 plan. It also aligns with our Chinatown Neighborhood Plan, which was last compiled in 2017. The zoning overlay is long overdue due to the growing population in Chinatown as well as the increased density and the pressures that lower-income residents are experiencing due to rising real estate prices and real estate taxes. With that said, I want to highlight a couple of core components of the bill here which we think are very beneficial to the Chinatown community. One is the opportunity to create more affordable housing, which is very important and in high demand in Chinatown. With the density bonuses which will only be allowed if the developer provides affordable housing is the right thing to do for Chinatown. That's number one. Secondly, we have asked the Councilman and the City Planning Commission to consider the borders to better align with the existing Chinatown RCO area, specifically extending the boundaries from 9th Street to 8th Street which would align with the Chinatown Planning District. Right now, as Councilman Mark Squilla also said, we have some suggestions on prohibited uses and I'm glad to hear that Ms. Brumbelow testified that they may already be prohibited in Chinatown. So that's my testimony for today and thank you.
Thank you, John. And I think what we'd like to do since it'd be time- sensitive, if we could set up a time, I'll have our office set up a time with Planning, my office and your planning people to sit down maybe early next week. It would have to be amended -- well, it'll be amended on the 12th. We can amend it on the floor on the 12th so we have a week to work on it, to go through that. So we'll send out a request to continue that conversation. Thank you for your diligence and your team's diligence on offering some suggestions to even make this a better piece of legislation and looking forward to amending it to add some of these changes to it. So thank you.
Thank you for being here and thank you for your testimony. And we will get ready to proceed and go into a public meeting while we await a quorum, so please stand by. (Recess.)
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson -- okay. So we'll now go to the public meeting. But before we do so, we'll call the roll and I'll acknowledge Councilwoman Kathy Gilmore Richardson, Councilman Mark Squilla, Councilman Isaiah Thomas and myself as a quorum. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 241055.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 241055. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 2 241055 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill 7 No. 241055 be approved. All of those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 241055 as amended.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 24 241055 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 241055 has been reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation as amended and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 240499.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 240499. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 15 240499 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill 20 No. 240499 be approved. All of those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 240499 as amended.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 13 240499 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 240499 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation as amended and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
Okay. The ayes have it and the motion carries. (Recess.)
Thank you for your patience. And so, Bill No. 240499, there is a correction to the Bill No. The accurate Bill No. is 240871. And so, I want to recognize Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 240871 -- actually there is no amendment to Bill No. 240871. So we will go directly to recognizing Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 7 240871.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 11 240871 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 240871 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
Okay. So the ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. -- (Recess.)
Okay. So we are going to go back into our public meeting. And once again, we're going to revisit Bill 22 No. 240871 for action. Chair recognizes Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson for a motion to amend Bill No. 240871.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 240871. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee, and I move that the amendment to Bill No. 11 240871 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill 16 No. 240871 be approved. All those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. And now, we want to report on Bill No. 240871. Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 240871 as amended.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 11 240871 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended at the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 240871 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
Okay. The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 241054.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 241054. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 3 241054 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill 8 No. 241054 be approved. All of those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 241054 as amended.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 241054 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It's 10 been moved and properly seconded 11 that Bill No. 241054 as amended be 12 reported from this Committee with a 13 favorable recommendation and 14 further move that the rules of 15 Council be suspended to permit 16 first reading of this bill at the 17 next session of Council. 18 All of those in favor of 19 this motion will signify by saying 20 aye. 21 (Aye.) 22
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Squilla for motion on Bill No. 241058.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 10 241058 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit the next reading at Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 241058 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 241059.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 18 241059 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move the rules of Council be suspended as to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Kathy Gilmore Richardson seconds the motion. And it has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 8 241059 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. And Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 4 241024.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 241062. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee and I move that the amendment to Bill No. 15 241062 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill 20 No. 241062 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. And the Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on Bill No. 241062 as amended.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 14 241062 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to submit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
For the record, Councilwoman Kathy Gilmore Richardson has seconded the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 4 241062 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All of those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. And if there are no 22 additional remarks from the Committee or from the guests, this concludes the business of the Committee on Rules today. Thank you very much for your attendance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. (Committee on Rules concluded at 2:50 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL