PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia City Council committee advanced a bill that asks voters to approve significant changes to the Zoning Board, which has enormous power over development in the city.
There were strong feelings for and against the bill.
No one who testified suggested the Zoning Board is working well as is, but many felt the changes proposed in Council President Darrell Clarke’s bill will not improve it, and could make things worse.
Philadelphia Department of Planning and Development Director Anne Fadullon warned that the provisions to increase the board’s size from five to seven members and require specific credentials, such as architect, will too often make it hard to seat a quorum.
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"We are concerned the charter change will significantly delay the ZBA’s work and ultimately impeded development," said Fadullon.
The doard decides on developers’ requests to build projects that don’t conform to existing zoning.
Community groups testified in support of the bill that the board has become a rubber stamp for developers and ignores residents.
“The ZBA had reached a level of arrogance and indifference toward long-term residents that was becoming blatantly abusive," said Valerie Ross, representing a citywide coalition of registered community organizations.
"We felt that participatory democracy, which is at the heart of urban planning and city governance, was being made a mockery of by the ZBA."
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But then there were residents like Mark Zachary who said the problem is the community organizations themselves, who reflexively oppose any development that brings more people to their neighborhood.
"Whort-sighted people who are against height and density, who should really be known as the anti-affordability-and-change coalition," said Zachary.
The move comes as the city is still fighting to recover from the pandemic that interrupted a building boom.
The bill is slated to go to the full Council. If it passes, voters will decide in the May primary whether to approve changes.
A Council committee also approved a pilot program to put more, and more advanced, surveillance cameras around recreation centers, to improve safety.
