COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE ON RULES - - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, June 10, 2004 9:50 a.m. - - - - BILL 040496 - An Ordinance to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located within an area bounded by Civic Center Boulevard, Convention Boulevard, South Street, Schuykill Expressway, North Drive and University Avenue. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA VERNA, Chair COUNCILMAN RICHARD MARIANO COUNCILMAN BRIAN O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN - - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 I N D E X BILL 040496 THOMAS CHAPMAN, Planning Commission... 3 06/10/04 - RULES - BILL 040496
May I ask the members of the Rules Committee to please come to the table. Good morning, everyone. This is a public hearing of the Committee on Rules. The record will reflect that a quorum of present. To my extreme left is Councilwoman Brown, Councilwoman Miller, Councilman Mariano, and to my left is Councilman O'Neill. I would ask Mr. McPherson to please read the title of Bill No. 040496.
An Ordinance to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located within an area bounded by Civic Center Boulevard, Convention Boulevard, South Street, Schuykill Expressway, North Drive and University Avenue.
Good morning, Madam President and Members of the Rules Committee. My name is Thomas Chapman. I'm the Director of the Development Planning Division for the 4 06/10/04 - RULES - BILL 040496 City Planning Commission, and I'm here today to testify on Bill No. 040496. Councilwoman Blackwell introduced this bill on May 13th of this year. This bill would rezone approximately acres of land in West Philadelphia from the 8 THE existing C-3 Commercial to C-5 Commercial. 9 This property includes the site of the former 10 Civic Center and Civic Center Museum. The 11 area is general bounded by Civic Center 12 Boulevard, convention Avenue, South Street, 13 Schuykill Expressway, North Drive and 14 University Avenue. 15 The interested parties in this 16 rezoning are the Children's Hospital of 17 Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. These institutions plan to redevelop the site with world class cancer treatment, ambulatory care, and medical research facilities. Each institution will construct approximately million square feet of state-of-the-art clinical and medical research space. The proposed development exceeds the 06/10/04 - RULES - BILL 040496 maximum allowable floor area ratio permitted in the C-3 zoning classification which is 5.5 times the area of the property, thus, the request to rezone the site to C-5. C-5 allows a floor area ratio of area times the area of the property. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania have agreed to a floor area ratio cap of 6 times the area of the property which 12 would accommodate their current plans. This limitation is to be recorded as a deed restriction. Ultimately, the institutions will construct about 4 million square feet of new development over a period of 15 years at a cost of approximately $1 billion. Clearly, these improvements will benefit the area and the City in terms of revenues, construction jobs, and permanent jobs. The Planning Commission at its meeting of May 18, 2004, recommended that Bill 24 No. 040496 be approved. That concludes my testimony. I'll 6 06/10/04 - RULES - BILL 040496 be happy to answer any questions of the Committee.
Thank you. If this bill were to pass, when would construction begin and when would it be completed?
It's my understanding that construction would begin in approximately a year from today and the ultimate build-out would take about years. 12
Thank you. 13 Are there any questions from members 14 of the Committee? 15 (No response.)
Do we have anyone else to testify on this bill? (No response.)
Seeing none, this will conclude our public hearing. - - - - 7 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC MEETING COMMITTEE ON RULES - - - - Thursday, June 10, 2004 - - - - Public meeting conducted by the Committee on Rules, held in Room 400, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the above date, to consider action on the following: BILL 040496 PRESENT: COUNCILMEMBERS 8 06/10/04 - RULES - PUBLIC MEETING
We will go into our public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilman Mariano for a motion.
Thank you, Madam President. I would like to make a motion for bill 040496 voted out of Committee with favorable recommendation and a motion to suspend the Rules to have first reading at the next Council Session. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 040496 be reported out of Committee with favorable recommendation, further a recommendation that the Rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next Council Session. All in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
Those opposed? (No response.) 9 06/10/04 - RULES - PUBLIC MEETING
The ayes have it, the motion carries. This includes the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee on Rules. Thank you all very much. (Council adjourned at 9:58 a.m.) - - - - 10 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, June 10, 2004, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE ON RULES _________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR