Mar. 11
By Thomas J. WalshFor PlanPhilly
It’s a given that the Philadelphia Zoning Code is convoluted, contradictory and woefully outdated. It’s the reason why it is being rewritten by a team of outside consultants.
But even the members of the Zoning Code Commission – a very large conference table full of city professionals who are pretty familiar with the code – are only now realizing just how complicated and tortuous it truly is.
Consultant Kirk Bishop, from the Chicago office of Duncan Associates, one of the four consulting firms hired to do the city’s code re-write, amused the gathered commissioners at Wednesday’s monthly meeting by saying – with the slight hesitation of good comic timing – that some particularly thorny parts of the code are, well, “sophisticated.”
“I just want to say thank you,” Commissioner Wendella Fox said to Bishop. “Thank you so very much. It is clear to me that it would take us a hundred years to really look at Philadelphia from a bird’s eye view. ... You did it in such a way that it’s really easy to understand what we have here.”
Bishop outlined what he called “the beginning of the deliverable products from the consulting team,” an initial “Interim Report” that is a formal assessment of the existing code – what he called “throwing rocks at the code.”
“More challenging is what we do about it,” he conceded.
Bishop outlined problem areas in the code regarding residential, commercial, industrial and special service districts. In Center City, he noted that existing “special control districts,” most of them addressing urban design issues, often overlap. This last point was graphically, even dramatically, illustrated by a color-coded map of Center City (page 45 of the 95-page report) that forms a hodgepodge of squares, rectangles, lanes and overlays – many of them intersecting with one or more other designated areas. The report calls for consolidation of these areas, and notes that, “If the city had a basic set of standards that applied to all neighborhood commercial districts, the code would be easier to use and the results more predictable.”
He addressed code issues of parking and transportation, as well as the promotion of rehabilitation and re-use of properties. He again emphasized the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s administration and procedures, and the need to reduce the ZBA’s “staggering workload” – a direct result of the ancient zoning system here.
And for anyone ever tempted to take a flame-thrower to the city’s zoning code, they might be interested to know that in certain industrial parts of town, it would be perfectly legal. But more on that later.
‘Difficult to navigate’
The code is “not intuitive,” lacks organization, format and discipline, said Bishop, who was gentle, yet thorough and methodical, in the rock-throwing. He also gave plenty of indications of what to expect in coming reports regarding recommendations.
Information is not located where other parts of the code say it should be. There are a dizzying number of cross-references, and definitions are scattered hither and yon among the code’s many chapters. Rules and guidelines are not codified and important regulations are outdated. There’s an “overly detailed use-classification system,” and not a good table of contents or index. There’s a general lack of tables, charts and illustrations.
A common result of all of this zoning inefficiency, no matter what kind of district designation, is a failure to allow productive uses, or to nurture development opportunities.
Residential: ‘Nonconforming’ is the norm
Of the code’s 31 residential classifications, many are only sparingly applied, meaning there are “many apparent opportunities for consolidation ... without significant adverse affect.”
For properties designated R9, for example, at least half are nonconforming, Bishop said. Same goes for R9A, R10 and R10A. “A substantial percentage of ZBA applications have to do with this” – seeking relief. “We’re not seeing the logic of the provisions.”
Commercial: ‘Candidates for a lighter touch’
There are nine kinds of commercial districts, modified by many overlays and lacking “place-making physical design elements.” Citing the high commercial vacancy rates in some areas of the city (23 percent in 2003), Bishop urged the commissioners to consider incentives and deregulation to promote re-use and redevelopment.
“Zoning itself is not going to fill space,” he said. But done right, it can’t hurt. Take the RC and OC designations (“residential commercial” and “office commercial”). Once outside Center City, “the use of these commercial classifications drops substantially.”
As such, they are “candidates for a lighter touch,” Bishop said.
Industrial: Jute makers wanted
To say the city needs to evaluate opportunities to consolidate its 10 industrial district classifications, and convert industrial districts “to modern industrial, research and business park uses” may seem obvious. But perhaps not after reading about some allowed uses that still grace the code, such as “rope and twine manufacture except from jute or sisal,” or “saddlery” – or for manufacturers of “phonographic records” or “typewriters.” (“What’s a phonographic record?” joked one commissioner. “What’s a typewriter?” answered another.)
(Others, just for fun: “Wagon repair” and “leather tanning, abattoirs, slaughterhouses and stockyards.” And PlanPhilly’s Industrial District Designated Use of the Day: “Manufacture of firearms, guns, howitzers, mortars, guns and flame-throwers.”)
“To us they don’t reflect modern-day Philadelphia,” Bishop understated. In the report, it is noted that Philadelphia’s original zoning code, drafted in 1933, “had only two industrial zoning classifications, at a time when the city had more industry and a more diverse manufacturing base.”
Other cities have simplified things by going with just three: “general,” “heavy” and “special,” with the latter for areas using potentially dangerous materials or chemicals.
Special zoning districts: Too special?
Special zoning districts have proliferated in Philadelphia, likely because of the lack of confidence in zoning, Bishop said. They make the zoning ordinance confusing, though, and are often redundant and overly restrictive.
“A single master plan or planned development-style zoning district may be able to replace the many master plan districts now in the code,” the report states.
Signs of trouble
Sign regulations in this town are “a mess,” Bishop said flatly, “but I’ve never seen a sign chapter [in another city’s zoning code] that wasn’t a mess.”
“Philadelphia has dozens and dozens of special ordinances and special restrictions on signs,” says the report. “For businesses that operate out of multiple locations – coffee shops, banks, drug stores, fast food restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores – it would be impossible to summarize the basic sign rules and regulations. It seems that every commercial district is unique and each district has its own rules and regulations.”
The main take-away lesson for signs is this: “A comprehensive overhaul of sign regulations should not be attempted within the context of the zoning code update, although strategic amendments may be advisable.”
That recommendation concerned Commissioner Andy Toy. But Don Elliott, senior consultant for the Denver-based Clarion Associates and the project’s overall point man for the re-write, clarified that sign rules would not be removed from the code. The idea is to look at extricating sign regulations, making them more consistent and predictable, and putting them in one place.
“We say put it in one chapter, but don’t try to re-work it,” Elliott said. Sign issues can be “such flashpoints that it could take over the whole zoning process” if you’re not careful. He added that “the sign industry is very powerful – if they have objections you want them objecting to the sign process, not the zoning process.”
Other issues
Bishop identified other broad areas for consolidation, which, combined with better efficiency within the code, could result in more and better reinvestment for the city.
Parking and transportation: “Off-street parking regulations are out-of-date, inflexible, and in some cases require too much parking,” the report says. The new code should include all parking regulations and general parking exceptions in one chapter. Current parking regulations don’t recognize the role of transit to the extent they should. More could be done for shared parking.
Rehab and re-use: “Philadelphia is an old city, with lots of nonconformities,” Bishop said. “The code treats all nonconformities as equally bad.” That should not be the case, because it often forces property owners to request zoning relief for only minor improvements – yet another barrier to investment. Plus, certain conforming properties can be quirky, or historic, or both, adding to the charm of an older city.
Administration and procedures: “The ZBA has a staggering workload,” Bishop said, caused by “an unbridled use of variances” – the single most important factor in clogging the system. From January 2000 through July 2007, the ZBA heard 12,609 cases (including 7,256 residential and 4,034 applications).
“We are aware of no other U.S. city that relies so heavily on its Zoning Board of Adjustment for zoning administration,” the report states. “As a result, the caseload of Philadelphia’s Board is astounding.”
The Interim Report also summarizes the professional code-user interviews completed, Web survey results and a rundown on the councilmatic district workshops.
Thursday workshop
The last of those workshops will be held Thursday evening (March 12) at South Philadelphia High School, at 6 p.m. Observations and input from that meeting will be added to the Interim Report.
The 95-page “Philadelphia Zoning Code Update Interim Report: Assessment of Existing Code” will be available online in PDF form by the end of the week at www.zoningmatters.org, said Commissioner Eva Gladstein, the ZBA’s executive director.
Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com.
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