City Council approved a bill Thursday to encourage denser and taller development around Philadelphia’s transit stations.
The legislation, a part of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s housing agenda, expands an existing law that offers development incentives to most non-single-family properties within a 500-foot radius of transit stations. Thursday’s Council vote expands that to a quarter of a mile.
It also boosts eligibility for the incentive, allowing it to include not only SEPTA rail stations, but intercity bus, PATCO, water taxi, and some bus or trolley stops.
The legislation is meant to allow more people to live near transit and boost SEPTA ridership. Mass transportation works best when more people live within walking distance of stations.
The law comes with a very Philadelphia caveat, however: City Council must opt stations into it. In most other states or cities that have this kind of transit-oriented development policy, it automatically applies to all eligible stations.
“I have not heard of that for transit-oriented development laws,” said Yonah Freemark, a lead housing policy researcher at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
“If you look at what Chicago, New York City or Los Angeles has, it’s across the city. There aren’t special exemptions for aldermen or council members” to control which stations are included, Freemark said.
Under the existing law, Council members in West Philadelphia have opted in most Market Frankford Line stations to the west of the University of Pennsylvania.
Many of the stops in Northern Liberties, Fishtown, Kensington and Frankford are included as well, although heavily used stations like Front-Girard, York-Dauphin, and the Arrott Transportation Center are left out.
The stations already covered by the zoning incentive’s existing 500-foot radius will be automatically expanded to a quarter mile.
No stations on the Broad Street Line are currently included. Those to the south of City Hall are half in Council President Kenyatta Johnson’s district and half in Mark Squilla’s district, complicating the politics of adding the stations.
To the north, former City Council President Darrell Clarke and his successor Jeffery Young have not opted any of the stations on Broad Street into the transit-oriented development program and have often been skeptical of high rise development.
“The problem with this approach is that it essentially allows City Council members who are recalcitrant to allow development to block” the transit-oriented development law, Freemark said. “It entrenches that resistance.”
Several City Council members said in interviews that they hope to make use of the new law and add stations in their districts.
Councilmember Mike Driscoll, who represents much of the Lower Northeast, said he plans to use it at the two Market Frankford Line stops in his district that aren’t already covered including the Arrott Transportation Center.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents much of West Philadelphia, has long championed the legislation and said she is studying the new language to see whether she can opt in more stations.
Squilla, who opted in the Spring Garden station in Northern Liberties, said its application is more complicated on South Broad Street.
“Broad Street is tough because it is two separate Council districts, and [we] need to get input from the community on both sides,” Squilla said. “I would consider it but do my usual community outreach first.”
But Council President Johnson said that he is interested in adding all the South Broad stations to the expanded transit-oriented development law.
“I have no objection to transit-oriented communities, so all of mine will be in,” Johnson said. “It’s great for development and the surrounding area. I’ll probably look at just to make sure either there’s a level of affordability.”
On North Broad Street, Young’s spokesperson said he is still studying the legislation and “assessing which stations would make sense to include.”
Properties zoned for single-family housing are not affected by the law. It also bans certain kinds of development from the area around transit stations, including one-story buildings, parking garages, and curb cuts.
The urbanist group 5th Square had been meeting with City Council members in advance of Thursday’s final vote on the bill strengthening transit-oriented development.
They say that there is support for adding many more SEPTA stops to the law, although they think areas like North Broad Street will be much harder to get stations opted in.
“The idea that all of the stations will be opted in at once is unlikely,” said Jay Arzu, housing organizer with 5th Square and the founder of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway Movement.
“They made the intention clear that they’ll look at it on an individual, case-by-case basis, which is disappointing for transit advocates,” Arzu said. “But we recognize it’s another step in the right direction. Sometimes you just got to take what you can get.”