Point Breeze starts new zoning committee to mend broken process
Order in Point Breeze | Flickr user pwbaker, Creative Commons
On Wednesday I went to the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) hearing to follow the still-developing saga of OCF Realty’s development at Point Breeze Avenue and Titan Street, as well as their coffee shop at 20th and Federal. (No news yet.) And, as I’ve written before, the debate over these projects has to do with the growing pains of a neighborhood in transition where the zoning meetings are a mess.
The biggest news to come out of the ZBA hearing, by far, was word that South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S. Neighborhood Action Committee (NAC) (UPDATED: Diversified Community Services, not SPHINC, has the NAC contract) established a brand new zoning committee to wrangle the neighborhood’s ineffective zoning process into something productive.
SPHINC evidently recognized that the most recent Point Breeze zoning meeting (like many before) served no one, and they want to change how the neighborhood does its zoning business.
Jonathan King, a Point Breeze resident and former zoning attorney, told me he was approached by SPHINC’s the Neighborhood Action Committee Director Zelda Simpkins to be part of the new committee. I caught up with King to get a better sense of how this fledgling zoning committee will work. He said SPHINC’s intention is to “modernize” the process and “to gain the support of all members of the community.” The whole idea is to make Point Breeze’s neighborhood zoning process more transparent and focused. No small task, but an incredibly important one.
The committee will post its rules, news about proposed projects, meeting notices, and all letters sent to the ZBA online (location TBD) and at the NAC SPHINC. They also hope to have early-stage informational meetings with zoning applicants to get a handle on proposals, discuss zoning-related concerns, and then communicate with the community about projects coming down the pipeline.
The new committee will run the neighborhood’s zoning meetings from here out, and aim to keep the conversation focused on zoning concerns and to monitor voting. King said the committee would tally votes at the meeting, announce a preliminary vote, and post the official count the next day. All residents living between Broad and 25th streets, Washington and Moore will be allowed to vote, while committee members will abstain and community support will be determined by majority rule.
Because so many zoning meetings are sidetracked by the same concerns about local hiring and property-tax increases, King hopes the committee will address those issues through other avenues. The Neighborhood Action Committee intends to maintain a list of neighborhood-based contractors to facilitate local hiring. King added that SPHINC shares the concerns residents have about the impact new development could have their property taxes. “We don’t want to see any long-term Point Breeze residents unable to stay in their homes,” King said. “We will lobby and organize the community to lobby city council to address the property tax issue specifically as it relates to Point Breeze.”
Joining King on the committee are: Torme Deveauxbray (contractor and coach), Antoninette Johnson (Point Breeze Pioneers), Jonathan King (a former zoning attorney), Pastor Lee Wright (Mt. Zion Pentecostal Church), Helen Carter, Marcellus Blair (contractor), and SPHINC NAC Director Zelda Simpkins. Here’s hoping that this crew, a mix of long-term residents and relative newcomers, can help build trust in their new-look version of the neighborhood zoning process.
As for the OCF Projects, they’re on a two-week hold awaiting input from 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson. Steve Cobb, a representative from Johnson’s office, said that the Councilman received documentation of the neighborhood zoning meeting just prior to the ZBA hearing. Evidently South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S. wouldn’t release the vote results to anyone and Cobb commented that there is “uncertainty to the status of South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S.”
Jonathan King has maintained the blog pointbreezephilly.org since late 2010, which now has a petition up on the site to encourage Councilman Johnson to support of OCF’s proposed developments.
In case you’re super interested, here’s my audio from the hearing about the proposed OCF development at Point Breeze and Titan. Hearing starts at the line marked below.
ZBA hearing for OCF Realty development @ Point Breeze and Titan – 2/15/12 by ajhahn
Want More?:
- Point Breeze development rumbles? Blame the process [February 1, 2012]
FYI, SPHINC is no longer a NAC. The NAC is now Diversified Community Services at 21st and Dickinson.
Thanks, Becky.
It’s my understanding that SPHINC is now using “NAC” to mean Neighborhood Action Committee. As you mention, the NAC (Neighborhood Action Council) program, and its accompanying HUD/OHCD funding, are no longer with SPHINC but at Diversified Community Services. I’ve updated the post above to try distinguish the Committee vs Council issue.
Further clarification about the NAC came in this afternoon via Paul Chrystie, Director of Communications for the Office of Housing and Community Development. The NAC at Diversified Community Services is a Neighborhood Action *Committee* (not Council as I said above). SPHINC doesn’t have a NAC contract, though its website still indicates that it does. The acronym also lives on, however erroneously.
The media (other than PlanPhilly) likes to portray Point Breeze as an epic battle between black and white, long-time residents and newcomers. But in reality the vast majority of those in Point Breeze want the same thing: Responsible development to return our community to the walkable, safe, and culurally diverse enclave it was for decades.
We can and will develop Point Breeze and we will do so in a way that protects homeowners from property tax increases and provides jobs for local contractors.
The Newbold neighborhood is situated within Point Breeze and will also be represented in the “new-and-improved-zoning-hearing” planning process. I’m proud to have the opportunity to represent my neighborhood in that capacity as chair of Newbold Neighbors Associations’ Planning & Zoning committee. I urge PlanPhilly to use us as a resource. planning@newboldneighbors.org.
Kudos to Jonathan, PB Pioneers & SPHINC for taking the initiative and making this happen.
So now that DCS has the NAC, this should mean that zoning issues will go before DCS not South Philly Homes in the future, right?
Hi Ryan.
Being a NAC has nothing to do with zoning per se. Generally speaking, it’s up to neighborhood associations to establish a zoning committee so that residents can get more information about proposed developments and have an opportunity to weigh in.
The city’s new zoning code (going into effect August 2012) created new requirements for neighborhood-level zoning processes. Developers will be required to meet with a neighborhood’s Registered Community Organization (which must be registered annually with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission) within a certain window. For more information about the community’s role under the new zoning code, check this pdf from zoningmatters.org. The Zoning Administrative Manual (currently in draft) has a chapter on “Best Practices for Community Organizations. Click here for a pdf of that manual, and hit up pg 70 for the chapter on community groups.
All of this is to say, community zoning processes are about to change a bit across the city.
Thanks…..that clears it up…kinda. I’m new to the zoning meetings, and maybe it’s just the train-wreck effect, but I find it amazing what has been happening in PB. I just wish Johnson would send a rep of some sort to these meetings to see what’s happening in his district.
I don’t mean to say “amazing” as in, everyone in opposition of the recent OCF site is crazy, but more so that a community like PB is left on it’s own to wade through problems of gentrification, economic in- balances, and healthy development. If there was some sort of city rep at the meetings to help ALL those in attendance understand the purpose of these meetings it might open up a very important dialogue between the residents….not this black/white/mexican thing. Thanks again Ashley