PHILADELPHIA – Today, City Council is speeding up affordable housing production by cutting red tape and restoring trust in the zoning variance process. The two bills unanimously approved today are part of Councilmember Jamie Gauthier’s Defying Displacement campaign. The legislation now heads to Mayor Parker’s desk before becoming law.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said, “City Council cut red tape to move affordable housing through the municipal approvals process faster, so we can keep development costs down and get families into affordable housing sooner. We also empowered the Zoning Board of Adjustment to approve variances on the condition that a developer includes affordable housing – improving trust in the variance process so we can bring more community-based development and affordable housing online.”
Bill No. 250043:
- Compels the Department of Licenses and Inspection to review zoning permit applications for affordable housing projects on an expedited timeline of five business days.
- Compels the Department of Licenses and Inspection to review building permit applications for affordable housing projects on an expedited timeline of ten business days.
- Removes the “to the extent capacity permits” qualifier so expedited review stays in place when department or City leadership changes.
- Enables affordable housing projects that require Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) approval to receive an accelerated hearing date for no additional fee.
- Expands the existing definition of “Affordable Housing Project” that already exists in L+I departmental regulations to include additional types of deed-restricted affordable housing, and applies it to the Building Code.
Bill No. 250041 authorizes the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) to make affordable housing commitments made by developers a mandatory condition of their approval via a “proviso.” The number of housing units and affordability rates will be referenced in the ZBA’s Notice of Decision and the subsequently issued zoning permit.
Bill No. 250043 — cutting red tape:
By reviewing affordable housing quickly, efficiently, and predictably, the City will organically speed up development and reduce costs. If affordable housing is as important to the City of Philadelphia as we claim it is, it does not make sense to review affordable projects as slowly as market rate ones.
Jane Allen from the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) testified during the committee hearing on this bill, “During a period where the already significant need for affordable housing is increasing faster than our ability to build it, municipal interventions that improve efficiency are an integral strategy to reducing pre-development costs, especially as the community and economic development sector navigates federal policy changes that may spike already high borrowing costs and will increase the price of building materials above and beyond the historically high levels we saw during the pandemic.”
Kevin Malawaski, Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects testified during the committee hearing on this bill, “Philadelphia’s affordable housing shortage demands urgent action. The bill injects predictability into a process that too often delays projects and drives up costs as a result.”
The variance process in particular can complicate timelines for affordable housing production because it takes more than six months to get a hearing scheduled. Instead of having to pay the current fee of up to $2250, free accelerated review puts affordable housing at the front of the line and gets families into homes sooner and for a lower price.
Bill No. 250041 — restoring trust in the zoning variance process:
In order to keep costs low many developers rely on extra density, leading them to seek a zoning variance from the ZBA. To minimize adverse impacts of the larger building, a developer may pledge to include affordable housing in their project. But since this is just a verbal commitment and the ZBA process does not permit applicants to enroll in other mixed-income housing programs in the Zoning Code, there is no way for the City or community to know if the developer made good on these commitments. This dynamic makes communities mistrustful of development and slows the variance process down.
Knowing that affordable housing commitments will materialize speeds up the variance process by making RCOs comfortable supporting more proposals.
Rev. Jay Broadnax of the West Powelton/Saunders Park RCO told the Rules Committee, “We as a community are not anti-development but we insist on promises being kept. A proviso from the zoning board would help would help to accomplish that.”
The ZBA is only authorized to impose this type of proviso in select situations. Affordable housing conditions can only be included in approval if a request is initiated by either the applicant or the Coordinating RCO and there is written documentation submitted to the ZBA in advance that this was a topic of discussion at the mandatory community meeting.
During the committee hearing, Garrett O’Dwyer of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations testified, “An equitable Philadelphia with safe housing options affordable to all levels of the income spectrum is what makes welcoming, vibrant communities possible. When developers take advantage of the system to break affordability promises made to communities, that goal becomes more out of reach for all of us. This legislation will help level the playing field.”
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