In this issue

At the August 2026 meeting of the Philadelphia Historical Commission, the Commission considered several relatively uncommon issues including the demolition of historic buildings, the removal of sites from the Philadelphia Historic Register, and technical procedural questions about the way the Commission conducts its business.

The Commission denied an application from developers to demolish a building in the Parkside Historic District, 4275 Viola Street. The Viola Street property, acquired by the current owner in 2023, was deemed Imminently Dangerous by L&I earlier this year. The owners’ application claimed the complete demolition was the only way to make the site safe, but the contractor’s engineering report and L&I’s own assessment both found that demolishing the front façade of the building – the part the Commission is primarily concerned with – was not necessary.

Community members and preservationists accused the developer, who owns several other properties on the same block, including an empty lot immediately adjacent to 4275, of intentionally allowing the building to deteriorate so that they could demolish it and clear the way to build a new, larger building on the site.

In a similar case, the Commission denied an application to remove 520 Queen Street from the Philadelphia Historic Register after it had been illegally demolished. In 2020 a contractor working on the building exceeded the approved scope of permits, damaging the building and, according to them, rendering it structurally unsound. There is disagreement between the contractor, the Commission, and L&I as to whether the demolition, which was never permitted, was necessary to make the site safe. The wrinkle with this site is that 520 Queen Street is individually designated (as opposed to part of a Historic District), but the Commission cannot find the original nomination from 1973 or any documentation in their records of why it was designated. Nonetheless, the Commission declined to remove the property from the register, a decision preservationists had feared would set a precedent of rewarding owners performing unpermitted work resulting in demolition or damage to historic buildings.

The Commission did however approve removing 3135-49 West Montgomery Avenue, the former site of the New Beth Israel Temple, from the historic register. After many years of neglect by a property owner, the dome of the temple began to collapse and was demolished by order of the city. In contrast to 520 Queen Street, this process was overseen and approved by L&I and the Commission.

In more classic Commission fare, the developer of 1601 Mount Vernon Street had a request before the Commission to substitute cast stone (precast concrete) for marble. 1601 is a long-neglected property in Spring Garden that was placed into conservatorship and is finally being rehabilitated into a multifamily home, the plans for which were previously approved by the Commission. The developer is seeking the material substitution because the current cost of marble is so high that if they used marble it would represent 20% of the total budget of the project.

The staff and commissioners were generally amenable to the substitution and ultimately approved it with some additional stipulations. During the public comment period there was a contentious back and forth between Justino Navarro, representing the Spring Garden CDC, opposing the substitution and Lori Arnold, a local resident and preservation specialist, supporting the substitution. Arnold accused the Spring Garden CDC of “consistently [putting] roadblocks in front of people trying to develop and improve the neighborhood” which Navarro took exception to.

Additional Quick Hits this Month:

• The Commission approved an application to partially demolish 124 and 126 South 7th Street to integrate the storefronts into the motor court for 708 Sansom Street

• The Commission added 580 Pelham Road / 333 West Upsal Street to the Historic Register

• The Commission denied an application to partially demolish 1018 Winter Street to convert it into a multifamily home.

• There was an extended procedural debate between the Commission and members of the preservationist community about the nomination of 6953 & 7001-09 Greenhill Road to the historic register. 7001-09 was added to the register, while 6953 was continued to the November Commission meeting.

Looking forward to September, the Commission is set to decide on two high-profile applications:

• The first, to remove the marquee of the former Boyd Theater and former Bankroll Bar, which has caused significant controversy among preservationists and has so far generated 90 pages of written public comment.

• The second, to consider the nomination of the Keith Haring Mural at 2147 / 2149 Ellsworth Street. This would be the first outdoor mural added to the historic register and one of only a few pieces of public art to be included. The preservation community in Philadelphia is so far split on this issue, with some notable preservationists like Paul Steinke of the Preservation Alliance opposing the nomination.

What Happened

124 & 126 South 7th Street

The Commission unanimously approved an application to incorporate two one-story storefronts, 124 and 126 South 7th Street, into a 35-story mixed-use residential tower being built on an adjoining lot at 708 Sansom Street.

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• New movement on trolley modernization on the T5 in Southwest Philly

• $20.8 million to replace escalators running a decade past their service life

• A $3 million contract for outreach to ‘vulnerable populations’ system-wide

• Passenger revenue $12.6 million over budget, and 159 positions unfilled

T5 Trolley Modernization moves forward

At Thursday’s meeting, the Board authorized up to $2.6 million in purchase orders to PECO for engineering and construction tied to relocating roughly 100 utility poles and five primary circuits along the T5 line. The poles sit in the path of what SEPTA plans to build there: rebuilt, fully accessible on-street stations, new low-floor vehicles that carry more riders, and a physically separated bike lane running the length of the corridor. The project will rebuild the entire streetscape. A second, related resolution sends another $500,000 to PECO for power upgrades at the 40th Street Substation.

Together, the two items bring the T5 closer to construction on what is effectively the leading edge of Trolley Modernization. SEPTA is sequencing the program with the T lines first, followed by the Media–Sharon Hill D lines and the Route 15 G line. Among the T lines, the T5 has moved fastest, with design wrapping up this year and construction scheduled for 2027 through 2030. Some stations along Island Avenue are already going in as part of the City’s Island Avenue Improvement Project.

Image Credit: SEPTA

Much of Elmwood along this corridor is currently zoned RM-1, the Philly zoning code’s medium-density workhorse for small-lot multifamily housing. That’s a good base to build on, but ‘gentle density’ alone won’t generate the ridership the modernized trolley operation needs. Near the stations themselves, mid-rise zoning should be in the mix too.

(Image: BPN Property Intelligence | Zoning along the T5: RM-1 in green; CMX-2 in light brown. See BPN’s zoning district glossary for details.)

Eastwick is flood-prone and disproportionately low-income; a rebuilt, accessible, bike-connected trolley spine there is the kind of infrastructure equity story advocates have spent years campaigning for. If this segment delivers anything close to what’s on paper, Trolley Modernization could be a shot in the arm to support more transit-accessible housing development in this part of the city.

Philadelphia’s new Transit-Oriented Communities law now provides a path to designate trolley stations for denser development, not just heavy rail stations. As SEPTA gets clearer on exactly where the modern trolley stations will go, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, whose 2nd District covers the corridor, should consider adding them to the TOC station roster to support ridership growth along this line.

Accessibility spending is up

The Board approved a $1.1 million change order for A.P. Construction’s work on the Tasker–Morris Station ADA Improvements project, pushing that contract past $9.9 million. Separately, the Board awarded a $3 million contract to Citizens Acting Together Can Help, Inc. to run outreach and engagement services for “vulnerable populations” system-wide under the Transit Police’s SCOPE program — SEPTA’s institutional answer to the homelessness and behavioral-health crises playing out across the system. A $20.8 million escalator overhaul covers units running five to 10 years past their expected service life.

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It’s happening this Friday, July 24th from 12-1:30pm at Econsult Solutions (1435 Walnut, 4th FL.) We’ll have Primo’s hoagies for guests. This will be the last Policy Lunch of the summer until after Labor Day. Please RSVP to attend:

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The Opportunity Zone (OZ) program is a federal tax incentive that lets investors defer or eliminate capital gains taxes when they reinvest gains into businesses or real estate in designated low-income census tracts selected by each state’s Governor. Here’s how it works: an investor sells a stock or property with a capital gain, rolls those proceeds into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) within 180 days, and the QOF deploys that capital into OZ-eligible projects. After a 10-year hold, gains on the QOF investment itself are tax-free.

The program was enacted in 2017 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). It produced 8,764 designated zones nationally — Pennsylvania got 300, of which 82 are in Philadelphia. The first round of Opportunity Zones will soon expire in 2028, and not all of the previously-designated ones selected by Governor Wolf a decade ago are eligible again. Pennsylvania will see a ~28% overall reduction in the total number of allotted Census tracts, making the prioritization conversation all the more important.

BPN recently released a pair of analysis mini-sites with recommended Opportunity Zone tract rankings for Philadelphia and statewide for Pennsylvania. We recommend a three-part ranking system: put OZs near jobs, near transit, and where there’s evidence of existing permit activity—a signal that real-world investments are more likely to actually happen.

Give them a read to learn more about the program, re-rank tracts according to your policy priorities using our slider tools, and download our data workbook to dig into this yourself.

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The full interactive map of current, expiring, and newly-eligible Opportunity Zone tracts is available on our BPN Property Intelligence platform for Professional tier users—rolling out soon with with a build-ability calculator and filters; financial analysis tools for market-rate and LIHTC projects; a multi-parcel selector tool for analyzing assemblages of parcels, and much more. Email jon@buildphillynow.org to schedule a demo today.

In this issue

• Veteran Housing in Tacony

• 27 Apartments in Spring Garden

• Ori Feibush appears before the Commission

What Happened

1319-25 Market Street

The owner of the former Market Street National Bank building at 1319-25 Market Street submitted an application for the installation of exterior signage and lighting in order to better promote the hotel, a Marriott Residence Inn, that occupies most of the building.

The applicant was seeking to install three 20ft banners on the corners of the building, the modification of an existing marquee to add Marriott branding, as well as additional lighting. Constructed in 1930, 1319-25 Market Street is an Art Deco building with ornamental terracotta tiling on the lower section of the building. The banners, rather than the lighting or the marquee, were the main point of contention with the Architectural Committee and the Historical Commission.

Commissioners, Commission Staff, and Committee members were concerned that the banners may damage the terracotta, either via the way that they’re affixed to the building or by trapping moisture and causing advanced deterioration. They also had aesthetic concerns with the banners disrupting the Art Deco styling of the building, Architectural Committee member Justin Detwiler commented “addition of those banners against that terracotta is just slapping something onto the most pure part of this building.”

At the request of the owner’s representation from Ballard Spahr & suggestion of Commissioner Dan McCoubrey, the Commission treated the marquee alterations and the banners with additional lighting as separate applications. They voted to approve the marquee changes and to grant a continuance on the banners & lighting to a future meeting.

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4619-25 Longshore Avenue

The owner of the former Tacony Club at 4619-25 Longshore Avenue is proposing a residential conversion to create sixteen new residential units and ground level commercial space, which is allowed by-right under the current CMX-2.5 zoning classification. According to the owner’s representative in the Architectural Committee meeting, the owner is in discussions with the Department of Veterans Affairs for the residential units to be used for VA housing.

The project as submitted includes the construction of an exterior elevator tower to increase the accessibility of the residential units. The reason for the elevator tower, according to the owner, is that the sloped roof of the building does not provide sufficient space for the elevator on the top floor without a mechanical space “popping through the middle of the roof” and adding the elevator internally would introduce design constraints for the residential units.

The Architectural Committee and the Commission had objections to the massing and impact to the historic fabric of the building, across two versions of plans submitted by the owner. The commission voted to approve the concept of an exterior elevator shaft, but to deny both of the designs presented.

27 Druim Moir Lane

Philadelphia real estate developer Ori Feibush, CEO of OCF Realty, appeared before the Commission seeking approval for exterior modifications to his home at 27 Druim Moir Lane in West Chestnut Hill. Feibush wants to construct a third story dormer to facilitate a larger staircase and increase the usability of the third floor of his home.

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This Friday, we’re excited to welcome Zoe Walker, Professional Staff Member for the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Highways and Transit Subcommittee), and Curtis Newman, legislative assistant for Senator John Fetterman, for a discussion about the current state of transportation funding negotiations in Washington.

Congress needs to keep billions of dollars in federal infrastructure investment from expiring on September 30th. Last month, the House T&I Committee took the first step toward tackling this looming deadline by passing the BUILD America 250 Act (H.R. 8870). However, questions remain about Congress’s ability to enact a surface transportation bill on time. Zoe will break down the federal reauthorization process, summarize key provisions in the BUILD America 250 Act, and provide insight into opportunities for advocacy.

As Committee staff, Zoe covers several areas of federal surface transportation policy, including highway safety, active transportation, and public transit. Prior to joining T&I, Zoe spent three years working for former Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), an outspoken advocate for leveraging the power of transportation to build livable communities. A Philly native, Zoe attended the University of Pennsylvania and takes great pride in telling anyone who will listen why nowhere else compares to the City of Brotherly Love.

It’s happening this Friday, July 10th at Econsult Solutions (1435 Walnut St, 4th Floor) from 12-1:30pm and we’ll have Primo’s hoagies for guests.

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Thanks to our guest speakers and all our regulars for making this event series such a hit. We’re celebrating 3 years of policy lunches this year, with 77 speakers over 73 events since June 2023. The 7/10 and 7/24 lunches will be our last two for the summer, and we’ll plan to resume after Labor Day. Onward!

Upcoming Lunches

7/24 Vaughn Ross - Opportunity Zones 2.0

The Zoning Board of Adjustment is proposing some changes to the regulations that govern it. These amendments were presented to the Board on June 10, 2026. Per the City Charter, the changes will take effect roughly 30 days after being filed with the Department of Records — on or about July 10, 2026 — unless a public hearing on the changes is requested by a member of the public.

Many City Hall watchers are already roughly familiar with the process through which a bill becomes a law, but the Mayor and departments also have some latitude to make pretty consequential policy changes too through administrative regulations, which follow the process described above. Proposed regulations show up on this website, and if they sit for 30 days and nothing happens, they go into effect.

The thrust of the ZBA changes is that section 5.2.3 is being struck from the regulation, and two new sections, 5.3 and 5.4, are being added. 5.2.3 relates to documents that need to be included with applications before the Board. Those requirements are being moved to their own sections and expanded upon, with some new requirements introduced.

Section 5.3 will create a new, more robust definition of Legal or Equitable Interest in a property, and acceptable documentation for proving legal or equitable interest. Applicants seeking variances/special exceptions or an L&I appeal before the board need to prove that they have some sort of ownership or legal interest in the property involved. The old language simply says “[The applicant must provide proof] of legal or equitable interest in the property in question, such as a fully signed deed, agreement of sale, lease or other similar instrument.”

The new proposed language expands that single clause into a full section. Per the new language, the Board will accept the following evidence of ownership or interest in a property:

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(Photo: Alejandro A. Alvarez, Philadelphia Inquirer)

At a pair of back-to-back meetings on June 25, the SEPTA Board ratified five labor agreements, adopted a $1.84 billion operating budget and a $920.7 million capital program, and signed off on a new five-year strategic plan — capping a budget season that began four weeks earlier, when the board adopted the FY2027 Annual Service Plan and set the New Bus Network in motion.

Operating Budget

The FY2027 operating budget authorizes $1.84 billion in spending, up $33.7 million (1.9%) over FY2026, against $416.8 million in revenue and roughly $1.43 billion in state and federal transfers. Critically, it includes no fare increases and no service cuts this year.

Underscoring the high stakes of this fall’s state elections for transit funding this budget “incorporates the final year of the one-time transfer of capital funds approved by [PennDOT],” and “absent a new dedicated funding source, SEPTA will face the potential for significant budget measures beginning in Fiscal Year 2028.” In his opening remarks, Chair Kenneth Lawrence pointed out this exhausts the “second and final year” of the capital-to-operating transfer the board approved last fall, a maneuver he called “unprecedented” and explicitly temporary.

If Harrisburg doesn’t deliver a statewide funding fix before July 2027, significant service cuts of the scale planned during last year’s crisis will be back on the table.

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Capital Budget

The FY2027 capital budget totals $920.7 million, and the twelve-year program would spend $16.5 billion across 146 projects. SEPTA’s capital budget has increased more than 50% since FY2021 — a positive development, as SEPTA had been the only agency of its peer group with a capital budget of less than a billion dollars until Leslie Richards’s tenure.

But inflation has eaten into those gains, forcing the agency to defer more than 40 projects in FY2026 alone. Most strikingly, the State of Good Repair backlog has doubled from $5.1 billion to $10.2 billion. To bridge the gap, SEPTA plans to borrow roughly $4.3 billion over twelve years, $1.5 billion more than the FY2026 plan.

The major capital priorities in the pipeline include $7.7 billion for fleet replacement of trolleys, Market-Frankford Line cars, and Silverliner IVs, $3.69 billion specifically for Trolley Modernization, and nearly $600 million for station accessibility. The Trolley Mod initiative will deliver a more ADA-accessible and light-rail-like experience to West Philadelphia and Delaware County transit riders when fully executed, and you can already see a preview of some of the street and station changes to-come on Island Ave at Lindbergh and Tanager in Southwest Philly. SEPTA will soon release an update on its long-term capital priorities in the coming months.

New Bus Network Launches

In May, the board adopted the FY2027 Annual Service Plan, which is what officially puts the the New Bus Network (formerly “Bus Revolution”) into motion. The New Bus Network will roll out in three phases:

• Phase 1 (August 2026) is Philadelphia-focused, adding two new routes — Route 72 and Route 76, the latter connecting Frankford Transportation Center to South Philadelphia — with frequency improvements on six routes, realignments on five, and efficiency changes on fifteen.
  It also launches automated camera enforcement on bus lanes and SEPTA’s first real-time bus tracking.

• Phase 2 (February 2027) reaches Chester County with the agency’s first two “Go On Demand” zones, a new Route 142, and a Direct Bus extension.

• Phase 3 (June 2027) brings a third on-demand zone to Norristown.

After protracted negotiations over the changes, the New Bus Network is expected to provide a modest overall increase in speed and reliability, with the largest benefits felt in the city of Philadelphia.

Routes that serve neighborhoods with more minority residents are slated for a 1.5 percent increase in service hours and routes serving disproportionately low-income neighborhoods will see a 0.9 percent increase. Nineteen bus routes met the threshold for review for disparate impact on minority riders or disproportionate burden on low-income riders, each requiring a documented mitigation or justification.

SEPTA held more than 200 public meetings from 2021-2024 to gather community feedback and over 25 community events prior to the May meeting to collect comments on phasing and implementation.

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This Friday, June 26th, join us for a special policy lunch co-hosted by BPN and the Progress & Poverty Institute (PPI) about an eye-opening new paper about the impact of local tax policy on regional jobs and suburbanization.

City leaders have long known that Philly’s upside-down tax structure funnels jobs out of the city and into the suburbs, but now we have a real model of how large the effect is, and the scale of the expected benefits from reforming it.

Virtual guest speaker Dr. René Livas, Harvard Public Policy PhD, will present his recent paper “Local Taxes and Suburbanization: Evidence from Philadelphia’s Wage Tax.” Dr. Livas’s research finds that “[r]eplacing [Philadelphia’s] wage tax with a non-distortionary land value tax would bring 26,000 jobs from the suburbs into Philadelphia. Such gains triple when we allow for producrtivity agglomeration forces.”

Here’s a free link to the paper:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5grej4l9znl1s7mmyaefl/wagetax_draft.pdf?rlkey=b1fdjai2ooja5rj9fffd8my4s&e=1&dl=0

Join us in-person for lunch this Friday, 6/26 at Econsult Solutions (1435 Walnut St, 4th Floor), or virtually via the link:

Join for In-Person Lunch

Join Virtually

The in-person event starts at noon, and the virtual program will begin by 12:15. Thanks to our friends at Econsult for hosting us, and to Russell Richie at PPI in advance for finagling the virtual/blended meeting logistics.

Subscribe to BPN’s Substack to learn about future lunches. RSVP at the button above for individual events.

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Upcoming Lunches

7/10 OPEN

7/24 Vaughn Ross, Rvesta Consulting - Opportunity Zones 2.0

In this issue:

• Sixteen new homes in West Philadelphia, and 363 new apartments in Manayunk

• A design proposal described as a “billboard for the billionaire class”

• An accusation of AI-generated renderings

• A choice between “saving a building or saving people’s lives”
  

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What Happened

4238-40 Chester Ave

The Commission reviewed and commented on a proposal to build eight duplexes — sixteen units — on an empty lot at 4238-40 Chester Avenue, in the Southeast Spruce Hill Historic District. Because the lot is non-contributing to the district, the Commission’s role is limited to review and comment, not approval or denial.

As with many projects in the city, much of the debate was about parking. In written comments, Amy Lambert of the University City Historical Society (UCHS) called the design “functionally tone deaf with the very nature of this transit-rich neighborhood,” objecting that “[t]he inclusion of 8 garages and curb cuts just feet from three trolley lines is not pedestrian- or family-friendly.“ Benjamin Sirolly of Friends of Clark Park, immediately adjacent to the lot, protested that the curb cuts would reduce on-street parking and the driveways would preclude street trees. Jenine Sanzari, for the Spruce Hill Community Association, wrote that “replacing a garden space with a concentration of garages in such close proximity to the playground prioritizes vehicular access over public safety.“

The Commission’s oversight, however, doesn’t extend to street safety or parking except as they affect the streetscape or the buildings’ exterior. When the project was before the Architectural Committee, members lamented that the parking couldn’t be placed in the rear, but that’s prohibited by zoning.

Most of the Commission’s comments concerned aesthetics and proportions. The mansard roofs read as “top-heavy,” a product of nine-foot ceilings plus a roof deck that’s out of proportion with how more traditional houses were built. The plans also lean heavily on prefabricated aluminum, vinyl, and composite siding, with only light use of masonry. “Aesthetically,“ UCHS wrote, “the designs act as billboards for the billionaire class, reminding residents that greed through minimal attention to materials and context seems more important than the City’s own preservation ordinance.“

2108 Sansom St

The Commission unanimously denied an in-concept design for a third- and fourth-floor addition to a carriage house at 2108 Sansom Street in the Rittenhouse-Fitler Historic District.

The applicant proposed a third floor in the style of a mansard roof, plus a partial fourth floor and roof deck set back far enough not to be visible from the street. The Commission has approved vertical additions on carriage houses in Rittenhouse-Fitler before, but those typically use setbacks to limit visibility from the street. Architectural Committee members noted that a mansard roof on a carriage house would be highly unusual and would create a “false sense of history.”

It was also noted that the renderings, prepared by local firm Zangrilli Design, appeared to have been created with the help of generative AI, and “depict inconsistent proportions, window configurations, and the existing building’s relationship to surrounding buildings,” making the proposal difficult to assess.

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3331 Powelton Ave

The Commission unanimously denied an application to legalize window and masonry work completed without a permit at 3331 Powelton Avenue in West Philadelphia. The Commission was first notified of unpermitted work at the property in June 2025; staff told the owner that any exterior work required a permit and Commission review. Despite that, a contractor proceeded to do masonry work, remove historic windows and replace them with vinyl, brick over some windows, and complete other exterior alterations. Licenses and Inspections issued a stop-work order in May 2026, directing the owner to obtain the required permits.

The owner said the work was emergency mitigation for structural problems caused by water infiltration around the windows and brickmolds. She was already under a separate stop-work order for a broken sewer line, and after the property received L&I violations for open windows, she believed she was complying by replacing or closing them. She testified that she’d largely relied on her contractor’s advice. Commissioners and Architectural Committee members said she’d likely gotten bad advice, criticized some of the window work, and suggested she retain a contractor more familiar with historic buildings and with working in Philadelphia.

459 Roxborough Ave

The Commission voted unanimously to add Galilee Baptist Church at 459 Roxborough Avenue to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. The church has anchored the Roxborough/Manayunk-area Black community for 125 years; Commissioners praised it as exemplifying “asymmetrical balance,” calling it a “very proud” church.

David Traub of Save Our Sites, Steven Peitzman of the East Falls Historical Society, and Oscar Beisert of the Keeping Society all spoke in favor. The nomination was submitted with the cooperation and support of Rev. Dr. Richard Brown III, Galilee’s interim pastor, and the congregation.

132 North 10th St

The Commission voted unanimously to add 132 North 10th Street, the former Tetlow Manufacturing Company building in Chinatown, to the Register. The nomination was prepared by Annie Liang-Zhou, a master’s student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design.

Built as a cosmetics factory, the building is, the nominator noted, a rare surviving example of an industrial building in Chinatown. The Commission praised the nomination’s quality and detail.

5604 North 5th St

The Commission voted unanimously to add 5604 North 5th Street, the former National Bank of Olney, to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

David Traub of Save Our Sites commended the nomination, noting that he “wish[es] we could nominate the rendering … it’s a splendid piece of architectural illustration and it shows what the building could be if it were restored to its original appearance.”

4889 Umbria St

The Commission voted unanimously to add 4889 Umbria Street, the former Manayunk Plush Manufacturing Company building, to the Register. The site is under active development, with a 363-unit apartment building proposed; the project was well in progress when the nomination was submitted in April 2026, having received conditional zoning approval and completed a Civic Design Review in 2025.

In its review, Commission staff “questions whether this is the appropriate moment to designate this property, given that it is actively under redevelopment,” noting the developer “designed a redevelopment project to comply with one set of regulations but would be compelled to redesign it midstream.” An attorney for the owners said they didn’t object to designation itself, but strongly objected to the “buffer” around the building, which would have required Commission approval for changes to the surrounding open land — grading, loading, parking, and the like.

Both the nominator, the Ridge Park Civic Association, and the Committee on Historic Designation accepted the owner’s proposed compromise: limiting the designation to the building’s footprint and excluding the open land. Commissioner Emily Cooperman, an architectural and landscape historian, called the boundary “very appropriate,” noting it’s “very common for industrial complexes to expand and change over time” — “a very different situation from an individual residential building on a large lot or an institutional building that has historically had a kind of breathing space.”

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This Friday, we are thrilled to welcome David Wade and Eliza Erickson, two veterans of Pennsylvania’s successful state-level permitting reform initiatives.

David Wade is Chief of Staff at the Commonwealth’s Office of Transformation & Opportunity, and Eliza Erickson is a Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow with the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins. Both were heavily involved with PA’s widely-heralded efforts to cut business permitting timelines, which reduced licensing and business processing timelines by 74% on average in 2025. We’re excited to hear their story and the lessons they learned along the way.

Thanks to our friends at Econsult Solutions for offering us their conference room this Friday, May 29th. Their office is at 1435 Walnut St, 4th floor, and we’ll be meeting from 12-1:30pm. We’ll have Primo’s hoagies for guests.

RSVP so we can plan for lunch

Fill out that Google form link to RSVP, and subscribe to our Substack to get notified about upcoming events.

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We’re looking for recommendations for upcoming lunch speakers, and have some topics in the works for June. Email me at jon@buildphillynow.org or leave a comment with any suggested speakers or topics. See you Friday!

What happened

Old City Demolition (302 Market Street)

The Commission approved on a 7-to-1 vote, with one abstention, the demolition of a two-story building at 302 Market Street, and the construction of a five-story building in its place. The original building on this lot was built in 1840 and was destroyed by a fire in 2014. The current building (the one being demolished) was built in 2017.

Commissioner Emily Cooperman, an architectural historian, was the dissenting vote on the proposal. She had two main concerns. One was that the new building at five stories would be taller than the surrounding historic buildings in the district and the original 1840 building on that site. The other was that the design of the proposed building was more indicative of the post-Civil War style Addison Hutton was known for, rather than that of the early 1840s when the original building and the immediately adjacent historic fabric were built. She complimented the design as “very handsome” but not one that she could support.

During public comment, David Traub, representing Save Our Sites, a local preservation advocacy group, commended the project as a “rather exemplary example of infill” and praised the developer for adopting the design changes recommended at the project’s earlier Architectural Committee review.

The 7-to-1 split was notable in itself. Commission decisions are typically by unanimous consent — if no member objects to a motion, it is considered passed unanimously without a roll call. Members will sometimes vote against an otherwise-passing motion specifically to register opposition and have their reasoning entered into the record. Truly contested votes, where the Commission is split, are rare.

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Senior Housing Project Pursues Historic Tax Credits at De Long Hook & Eye Factory (3031 N 21st Street)

The Commission provided comment on a nomination for the De Long Hook & Eye Company Factory at 3031 North 21st Street to the National Register of Historic Places. The building is not currently on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

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This Friday, we’re pleased to welcome three Center City District staff members — Andrew Jacobs, Jimmy Salfiti, and Giavana Pruiti — to talk about CCD’s Open Streets program, and what kind of foot traffic, business sales, and other economic development metrics they’ve been capturing at these events.

Thanks to our friends at Econsult Solutions for offering us their conference room this Friday, May 15th. Their office is at 1435 Walnut St, 4th floor, and we’ll be meeting from 12-1:30pm. We’ll have Primo’s hoagies for guests.

RSVP so we can plan for lunch

As someone who was involved in the rag-tag campaign to create a Philly open streets event series after the Pope visit in 2015, I have a special place in my heart for this issue, and have been pleased to see CCD iterating on a version of the program that’s more in the “neighborhood block party” category than the parade category like Philly Free Streets. We’ll spend some time talkking about what may be possible for dragging-and-dropping this type of event into other neighborhood commercial corridors, and what the challenges are for that.

Fill out the Google form link to RSVP, and subscribe to our Substack to get notified about upcoming events.

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Upcoming Lunches

5/29 David Wade (Chief of Staff, PA Office of Transformation & Opportunity) and Eliza Erickson (Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow, Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins), on reforming Pennsylvania’s state permitting systems

6/12 OPEN

6/26 OPEN

The Philadelphia Land Bank Board approved three dispositions at their May 12th meeting, unlocking 44 new single-family homes on city properties — all eligible for the city’s Turn the Key (TTK) program — across the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Council districts. All three votes were unanimous.

What Happened

The headline approvals:

• Gonsosa Development was awarded the Sub-Area 2 RFP for 19 homes in Sharswood (CD 5) — previously pulled from April’s Board agenda

• Fine Print Construction was approved for two unsolicited proposals: 14 homes in Grays Ferry (CD 2), notably capped at 80% AMI rather than the more common 100%, and 11 homes on Leidy Avenue in Parkside / Belmont (CD 3), involving subdivisions of three existing parcels.

The Leidy Avenue item prompted the meeting’s most substantive discussion — a procedural objection from a neighboring property owner that staff and a community group member witness refuted. With all members in attendance, the board approved it anyway.

Outside of the three dispositions, public comment focused on demands for greater transparency around the Land Bank’s pending operational assessment, pending Council legislation impacting land swaps, and continued discussion about the always-hot topic of the scope community input on project details and siting.

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Executive Director’s Report

Land Bank Executive Director Angel Rodriguez did not deliver a formal Executive Director’s report this month, but he briefly updated the board on the current Turn the Key program statistics, including revised AMI data, demographics, and so forth. Read on for a detailed breakdown of the program stats below.

Item #1 — Gonsosa Development (Sharswood Sub-Area 2 RFP)

Council District 5 (CM Jeffery Young) · 19 single-family homes · Sharswood (North Central RFP)

This RFP project was originally on the April 14th agenda, but was pulled before the meeting. It was back on the agenda this month without modification.

Project details

• 19 single-family homes on 19 parcels

• 2 stories, no basement

• 3 bedrooms / 2 baths

• ~1,200 SF each

• ≤100% AMI, maximum sale price $280,000

• HOME / Turn the Key eligible

• EOP plan applies

• Awarded via the same North Central RFP that produced the Civetta Sub-Area 1 award in April

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At our last Friday policy lunch, we had a fun wide-ranging discussion with PPA Executive Director Rich Lazer, and didn’t even know he was about to get hired to run PhilaPort. Bon voyage, Richie! We’re all looking forward to your next act.

This Friday, we’re excited to welcome Philadelphia Inquirer commercial real estate reporter Jake Blumgart, and Editorial Board member Daniel Pearson, whose Shackamaxon column frequently covers housing and development topics.

Thanks to our friends at Econsult Solutions for offering us their conference room this Friday, April 24th. Their office is at 1435 Walnut St, 4th floor, and we’ll be meeting from 12-1:30pm. We’ll have Primo’s hoagies for guests.

RSVP so we can plan for lunch

We thought this would be fun because you don’t often get to meet the people behind the news, and if you follow local development politics like us, you’re probably reading these people’s work multiple times a week. Jake said he filed 17 stories over the last 18 days! Come learn about how Jake and Daniel do their jobs, and their observations from following these issues closely over the years.

Fill out the Google form link to RSVP, and subscribe to our Substack to get notified about upcoming events.

Upcoming Lunches

May

5/8 Off

5/15 Andrew Jacobs, Center City District - Open Streets Analysis

5/29 David Wade (Chief of Staff, PA Office of Transformation & Opportunity) and Eliza Erickson (Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow, Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins), on reforming Pennsylvania’s state permitting systems

(Source: Philadelphia.TODAY)

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission met Thursday at 1515 Arch Street, working through a packed agenda that included a contentious property transfer in Germantown, a pair of school rezonings in West Philadelphia, a federally owned VA site whose redevelopment plans are now in question, a University of Pennsylvania master plan amendment, a rezoning tied to an affordable housing project in North Philadelphia, and a long-awaited waterfront activation in Tacony.

Zoning Bill 260298, covering Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School, was flagged for 45-day review with staff reports due in May. Co-introduced by Councilmembers Jones Jr., Thomas, and Ahmad, the bill would rezone the area from RSD-3 to SP-CIV. There have been complications with exact property boundaries. You may have seen coverage of the School District’s plans to close Lankenau in the Inquirer. Streets Bill 260267, a staircase encroachment at 611 S. 7th Street, was approved administratively.

Property Bill 260242: Town Hall on Germantown Avenue — Approved, With Community Pushback

Source: (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu, Resolve Philly)

The longest item by far. The bill, introduced by Councilmember Bass, authorizes conveying a tract of city-owned land at 5928–30 Germantown Ave to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID), which would work with West Powelton Development — holder of an MOU since 2022 — to restore the historic Germantown Town Hall. The plan has shifted from senior housing to a charter school anchor tenant targeting Q3 2028 occupancy, a commercial kitchen and restaurant incubator, and historic exterior preservation. The Commission’s role here wasn’t to weigh in on the sale terms, but on whether the disposition aligns with the City’s planning goals. The Upper Northwest District Plan does prioritize preservation and reuse of architecturally significant or historic buildings.

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At last Tuesday’s Land Bank Board meeting, the board approved five dispositions and one interagency transfer, unlocking 42 units of housing on city-owned properties.

Board chair Angela Brooks was absent and the meeting was chaired by Vice Chair Nicholas Dema. Board members Alexander Balloon, Maria Gonzalez, and Jenny Greenberg were also absent.

The main event of the meeting was a proposal from Civetta Property Group, owned by principals Mike and Brennan Tomasetti. Civetta is the single largest Turn the Key developer by volume.

The meeting began with the Executive Director’s report, which included an overview of the Turn the Key program’s stats to-date, and a list of all the properties let out for Turn the Key and other workforce and affordable housing development projects since FY2017. As of this month’s report, 1,004 TTK units have been approved for development, with 569 under construction and 369 completed and sold. Forty percent of sold units — 149 homes — went to city employees. The average TTK buyer earns about 66% of Area Median Income, with a $71,000 Land Bank second mortgage and a $1,400 average monthly payment.

See the meeting packet for more details. Paid subscribers can check out the full map of public properties, filterable by agency owner, on the BPN Property Intelligence platform.

(5th District RFP property map)

Civetta’s new scattered-site proposal was a response to a Request for Proposals prepared by the Land Bank staff in coordination with 5th District Councilmember Jeffery Young’s office, and would add another 26 Turn the Key homes to the list, in Sharswood.

The 26 homes will be three-bedroom, two-bath single-family houses of roughly 1,375 square feet, sold to households at or below 100% of AMI for a maximum price of $280,000. Nine will be two-story with no basement, five two-story with finished basements, and twelve three-story with no basement. Civetta will pay $2,600 for the assembled 27,974-square-foot site, against an appraised value of $985,000. Total development costs are pegged at $6.5 million, with 10% developer equity and the balance in senior debt from Legacy Capital.

A paired RFP award to Gonsosa Development for 19 additional homes on an adjacent sub-area (Sub-Area 2) was removed from the agenda before the meeting.

One of the 26 parcels named in the RFP was the subject of some controversy at the meeting. Members of the newly-organized Philadelphia Land Stewards Union, a group advocating for the interests of volunteer stewards of city lots, organized for the public comment segment to demand the Land Bank remove 1818 N. 23rd Street from the deal. That lot has been maintained by a near neighbor, whose name we’ll leave out for privacy reasons.

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That’s why today we’re excited to roll out two new information products — BPN News and BPN Property Intelligence — that will help Philadelphia’s built-environment watchers stay informed and prepared to act fast on opportunities.

The Problem

Philadelphia’s property data is scattered across OPA, L&I, ZBA, the Land Bank, and the Recorder of Deeds. There’s no single place to see it all. Atlas is limited. CoStar charges thousands per year. eCLIPSE search is notoriously bad. On the media side, much of the coverage of city board and commission hearings has fallen away. Hearings where billions of dollars in development decisions get made — Land Bank dispositions, ZBA appeals, Planning Commission reviews — get inconsistent or no press coverage, and even City Hall insiders barely know what’s going on across the full landscape.

We built the tools that are missing. Today we’re launching a new subscription platform with two new information-based products.

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Reported coverage you won’t find anywhere else

If you’re already subscribed to our free Substack, you probably noticed we’ve been publishing more original reporting on city meetings about housing and transportation, and that there are some new writer voices in the mix, with Ashlei Tracy and Brendan Illis joining as contributors. A few recent pieces we ran:

• SEPTA Board Approves First Transit-Oriented Communities Project in Ambler

• CM Young’s Permit Bill, Penrose Ferry’s Brownfield Future, and a District 7 Overlay Overhaul

• After Almost 2 Years, Land Bank Board Approves 30 Workforce Homes in Norris Square

• A Scaled-Back Germantown Project, Adaptive Reuse, and Philly’s Sixth Protected Interior at the PHC

Our team of writers has been covering the Planning Commission, the Historical Commission, the Land Bank, and the SEPTA Board after readers indicated in our survey that those were the top ones they wanted to read about. We’re bundling this reported meeting coverage into a new vertical called BPN News, which will continue for paid subscribers. We’ll publish the occasional free reported piece for bigger stories, but this content will mostly live behind the paywall going forward.

Your subscription will go toward paying freelance writers. Once we reach 55 subscribers, our scrappy news desk will break even on the current program.

If you care about local journalism, subscribe today and help us resource independent reporting.

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Subscribers also receive:

• Weekly Development Digest — the latest development permits and zoning appeals filed across the city

• Weekly Public Meeting Agenda Tracker — what’s coming up at Planning Commission, ZBA, Historical Commission, and other boards, so you never miss a decision that affects your work or neighborhood

Philadelphia’s AI-Powered Property Intelligence Platform

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• CSV downloads - 5,000 records (Professional tier)
  

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Data You Can’t Get Anywhere Else

We’ve built original datasets that don’t exist in any other Philadelphia property tool:

• Public agency ownership — filter all 580K+ parcels by public agency owner: PHA, Land Bank, RDA, City, Commonwealth, School District. Essential for Turn the Key, Act 135, and disposition research.

• Historic contributing status — every property in a local historic district classified as contributing, non-contributing, or significant. Digitized from Historical Commission records, matched to 91% of OPA parcel numbers. Nobody else has this at the parcel level.

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We’re building something special with the people who will use it most. This project will work best if we all work together to improve everyone’s knowledge of Philadelphia housing and commercial development, and hold city government accountable for better outcomes. Subscribe today and join our growing community.

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The Philadelphia Historical Commission denied three applications at its April meeting — a row home combination in Fairmount that commissioners said amounted to near-total demolition, a front door replacement in Rittenhouse, and another illegal slate-to-asphalt roof swap in University City, the second on the same block.

Four properties were added to the Historic Register, including the Frank Furness–designed Mount Airy train station now leased by developer Ken Weinstein. A Chinatown conversion project was sent back to the Architectural Committee for incomplete plans. And in litigation news, the Washington Square West Historic District was reinstated after a court reversed an earlier decision removing it.

What Happened

Row Home Combination in Fairmount (2027 and 2029 Brandywine)

The Commission denied an application to partially demolish parts of 2027 and 2029 Brandywine Street to create a single, larger, single-family home. The main objections were the extent of the proposed demolition, the fourth floor addition, and the rear ells.

The Architectural Committee had previously reviewed and rejected a version of this project with a gabled roof. The version presented before the full Commission had been updated to a flat roof design with a setback fourth floor addition not visible from the street. Even with the revision, the Commission objected to the fourth floor addition, given the block’s consistency of three-story homes with flat roofs.

This project involved the demolition of the rear ells of the two buildings. The ell is a common feature of row homes that allows light and airflow into interior rooms, creating an “L” shape in the building footprint — hence the name. The applicant asserted that the rear ells had already been modified by previous owners. One of the ells had apparently been rebuilt in timber frame, while the other was masonry. Commissioner Emily Cooperman challenged that assertion as “lacking precision” and not being backed up by historical documentation, such as fire insurance maps, which would show the building footprint and material construction.

The plan calls for the demolition of the entirety of the rear ells, the rear walls, all of the floor and roof framing, and substantial parts of the party wall. According to L&I guidelines, demolishing more than two-thirds of a building’s framing constitutes a “complete demolition.” A member of the public commented that this project may be a “facadectomy“¹ rather than a mere alteration. The Commission clarified that L&I’s definition of demolition and the Commission’s are not the same.

Relevant PHC Filings: Revised Application

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A New Front Door in Rittenhouse (408 S 22nd St)

The Commission denied an application to replace and reposition the front door of 408 S 22nd Street.

The owners want to replace their two-leaf front door (which opens from the middle) with a smaller single-leaf door. According to their architect, they find the current arrangement difficult to use and are concerned about the security of their home.

The discussion centered on maintaining the historic integrity of the block. Commissioners questioned whether it was truly necessary to replace the two-leaf door with a smaller single-leaf door, suggesting that a carpenter could convert the existing door to a single-leaf design — preferable from a preservation perspective to a full replacement. When the applicant raised concerns about the weight and unwieldiness of a single-leaf door of that size, commissioners suggested that suitable hardware, such as hinges with ball bearings, would make it manageable.

The Commission ultimately rejected the application with a suggestion that the applicant work with the staff and reapply with a new proposal.

Relevant PHC Filings: Revised Application

Roof Legalization in University City (4225 Pine St)

The Commission denied an application to legalize an asphalt shingle roof at 4225 Pine Street.

The property manager representing the building told the Commission that they had hired a roofing contractor who said they didn’t need permits for the roof replacement and proceeded with the work without pulling permits, which would have triggered a PHC review.

This is the second building on this block recently to seek legalization of an illegally replaced slate roof. In January, the owner of 4221 Pine sought to legalize their roof, which they also said had been replaced by a contractor who did not pull the required permits. The Commission denied that application in January, and the case remains unresolved.

Relevant PHC Filings: Application | Public Comment

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Designation of a Southwark Funeral Home (1018 S 2nd Street)

The Commission voted to add the Cieplinski Funeral Home, at 1018 South 2nd Street, to the Historic Register.

Relevant PHC Filings: Submission

Designation of a Spanish Colonial Revival Home in Oak Lane (601 W Godfrey Ave)

The Commission voted to add the Carl Metz House, at 601 West Godfrey Avenue, to the Historic Register. The house was built in 1927 by Carl Metz, a prominent developer during the 20th-century development boom in the city, responsible for building many blocks of row houses.

Relevant PHC Filings: Submission

Designation of the Mount Airy Train Station (119 E Gowen Ave)

The Commission voted unanimously to add the Mount Airy Train Station to the Historic Register. In 2024, Ken Weinstein of Philly Office Retail was given a 99-year lease to five SEPTA stations in order to restore them and turn them into mixed-use buildings. Weinstein testified that he was surprised to find out the station, built in 1883 and designed by Frank Furness, was not already on the Historic Register.

Relevant PHC Filings: Submission

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Designation of a Former Church (701 W Johnson St)

The Commission voted unanimously to add the Blue Bell Mission at 701 West Johnson Street to the Historic Register. The owner, also Ken Weinstein of Philly Office Retail, intends to adaptively reuse the former church as a single-family residence. According to the nominator, Oscar Beisert of the Keeping Society, Blue Bell is one of the only surviving mission chapels in Northwest Philadelphia.

Relevant PHC Filings: Submission

Three Apartments in Chinatown (1018 Winter St)

The Commission remanded an application to demolish large parts of 1018 Winter Street in order to convert it into a three-unit building back to the Architectural Committee. A previous version of this project was presented to the Architectural Committee with more significant changes to the facade. Based on feedback from the Committee, the applicant revised the plans to limit the extent of demolition and changes to the facade in public view. While the Commission greeted the new proposal as a "great step in the right direction," there were concerns about the completeness of the plans and the scope of the demolition. The Commission voted to send the application back to the Architectural Committee due to incompleteness.

Relevant PHC Filings: Submission

Report of the Historical Commission Staff

The staff retook photographs for a proposed Tulpehocken Historic District in March. We can expect that nomination to be reviewed by the Committee on Historic Designation, and then the full Commission, in the coming months.

Ten of the Commission’s decisions are currently the subject of active litigation. Most notable among them is the Washington Square West Historic District. On February 26th, the court removed the Washington Square West designation. On March 30th, a subsequent decision reestablished the historic district, vacating the February 26th decision. Appeals are ongoing, and a date for new oral arguments has not been set.

Relevant Links: Report of the PHC Staff

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This Friday, we’re pleased to welcome back Rich Lazer, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, for another policy lunch appearance.

And we’re thankful to our pals at Econsult Solutions for once again offering us their conference room for this, this Friday, April 10th. Their office is at 1435 Walnut St, 4th floor, and we’ll be meeting from 12-1:30pm. We’ll have Primo’s hoagies for guests.

RSVP so we can plan for lunch

We’ll be getting some updates from Rich on his many ongoing initiatives at PPA—digital temp parking passes!—and some new ones too. Of interest to this group: with Waymo rumored to be launching in Philly soon, PPA will be the official regulator, so we’ll be eager to hear more about what’s happening there.

Fill out the Google form link to RSVP, and subscribe to our Substack to get notified about upcoming events.

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Upcoming Lunches

April

4/24 Jake Blumgart and Daniel Pearson, Philadelphia Inquirer

May

5/8 Off

5/15 Andrew Jacobs, Center City District - Open Streets Analysis

5/29 Open

But local elected officials control an even more powerful — and free — policy lever that decides SEPTA’s level of success: the land use rules that determine how many people can actually live near transit. That’s the issue the mayor’s latest round of H.O.M.E. initiative zoning bills tries to tackle.

Four such bills landed in City Council last week. They’re worth supporting — and also scrutinizing.

What’s in the bills?

The centerpiece of the package is a Transit-Oriented Communities bill — renamed from “Transit-Oriented Development” — which aims to allow more multifamily buildings to get built near transit. Philadelphia already has a TOC overlay on the books. Its core functions — increasing unit density by 50 percent, adding one story of height, and cutting parking requirements by half — are largely carried over into the new bill.

The current bill doesn’t change too much about the underlying rules, but it makes a number of positive changes, the most important of which is expanding the area where the law applies from 500 feet to a quarter-mile radius from selected SEPTA stations. This would impact only the 13 transit stations that already have these overlays, and so far, no new stations are proposed to be included. District Councilmembers would have to decide to add more; so far none have publicly volunteered for this.

The bill also proposes diversifying the zoning categories of buildings that can be constructed near transit spots to include, for example, mid-rise mixed-use buildings — up to three stories, including both residential and commercial uses. These are steps in the right direction, but are a far cry from what they’re doing in Chicago, Seattle, and Austin — the places that are actually building a lot of transit-oriented housing. That’s in part because Parker’s bill still maintains a minimum parking requirement and only allows for one additional story to be built in most cases, whereas many of our peer cities’ policies allow for true high-rises with several more bonus stories in transit zones.

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If everything passes as proposed, Philly’s TOC ordinance will still be a long way away from emerging national best practices, but the bill reflects the political considerations involved in passing a bill through this City Council. As it doesn’t appear that this is the final phase of the administration’s TOC work, it’s worth supporting as a medium step in the right direction, and to crack the door open wider to further action down the road.

A second related bill removes the ground-floor commercial or active use requirement for fully-residential buildings inside TOC zones — a technical fix to the current law.

The third bill would help save SEPTA from needing to go to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for more transit infrastructure,station maintenance or renovation projects. About a quarter of SEPTA properties — stations, end-of-line facilities, maintenance buildings — are zoned in a way that doesn’t allow transit uses by-right. According to data from SEPTA, about 83 percent of their facilities are located in commercial zoning districts, 12 percent in special purpose districts, and 5 percent in residential districts. If the Mayor’s proposal passes, legalizing transit uses in commercial districts, most of their zoning problems are solved. With funding tight, reasonable people can probably agree the marginal SEPTA dollar should go toward better service, not paying zoning lawyers.

The fourth bill, while not directly related to transit, would help support more neighborhood-scale mixed-use housing and more redevelopment of under-used commercial corridor properties — frequently co-located near transit. That bill would make several changes to CMX-1, the zoning category for small commercial buildings on corner lots, allowing somewhat more height and units, and increasing the redevelopment potential of these properties. The current CMX-1 category is full of worst-practices content, like a rule that makes the building’s allowed users contingent on the zoning of the lot next door. Zoning should say what you can do on your property; your neighbor’s lot shouldn’t factor into it.

According to sources, the administration is also working on a revamp of the Transit Improvements Density Bonus — a currently unused law that allows developers to access additional height and density if they pay for certain kinds of transit station-area capital projects.

This is in the same class of pay-for-density programs as the Mixed-Income Housing Bonus (MIHB). The MIHB awards density bonuses to projects that either supply below-market units or pay a fee into the Housing Trust Fund. Since 2019, the MIHB has produced 300 affordable housing units — 141 completed and 159 under construction — and generated $36.3 million in payments to the City.

There are limits, though, to how far the pay-for-density concept can go when applied to transit. Developers paid $36 million total to the City over six years; some SEPTA capital projects are $36 million in one shot. The per-project cost of public sector-managed construction projects is exorbitant and well-known. If the proposal allows developers to pay into a fund that eventually covers portions of capital projects, that could work. If the expectation is that home-builders will fund entire capital projects in exchange for one additional story, that seems like a bridge too far.

A few years ago, Councilmember Mike Driscoll introduced a beefed-up version of the Transit Improvements Density Bonus (Bill #240249) that would have significantly increased the density bonuses over what’s allowed under the current law, and fixed some of the other operational issues with it.

But even the Driscoll bill only allowed for eight story buildings on most lots — which lands right on top of the construction cost cliff where the economics don’t work. If the forthcoming Parker administration proposal is based on that legislation, it’s going to have the same problem.

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Why does eight stories matter so much?

A 2022 study by economists Michael Eriksen and Anthony Orlando, published in Real Estate Economics, examined what it actually costs to build multifamily buildings of different heights in the 50 largest U.S. cities. They found construction costs don’t rise smoothly as buildings get taller. Instead, costs decrease with each additional story from 4 to 7, and then spike 32 percent between 7 and 8 stories.

The reason is that crossing the 8-story threshold triggers a cascade of expensive building code upgrades like faster elevators, more powerful fire pumps and standpipe systems, upgraded electrical and alarm infrastructure and, most expensively, structural steel H-pile foundations to support the additional weight. Together, these changes add roughly $40 per square foot to construction costs.

The result is what Eriksen and Orlando call a “donut” in the building height market: a dead zone where 8-10 story buildings are economically non-viable. They cost nearly as much per square foot as a 12-story tower, but produce far fewer units to cover those costs. In 24 of the 50 largest cities — including Philadelphia — unconstrained developers would build exactly seven stories in a typical location. The optimal heights are 3, 7, or 12+ stories, with nothing in between.

The study also provides Philadelphia-specific numbers. In Philly, the break-even rent — the minimum rent a developer needs to justify new construction — is actually lower for a seven-story building ($18.69/sq ft) than for a three-story building ($19.69/sq ft), because spreading land costs over more floors covers the incremental construction costs. But at 12 stories, the break-even rent jumps to $22.85/sq ft. For Type I high-rise construction to pencil out, the building needs enough additional rentable floor area to absorb those costs — and that means going well above eight stories.

This is the fundamental problem with both Parker’s bill and the Driscoll transit improvements bonus. Floor-area ratio (FAR) is a measure of how much total floor space a building can contain relative to the size of its lot. Architect Ryan Lohbauer created massing drawings for Build Philly Now showing how much extra buildable space the TOC 30 percent bonus and the Driscoll density bonus are actually worth for a mixed-use mid-rise building. The result is not encouraging.

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Both bonuses push a project to about 8 stories — the exact threshold where all those expensive code requirements kick in. The 30% TOC bonus produces a tiny 8th-floor sliver that, as Lohbauer’s drawings show, would most likely never be built. A developer would just stop at 7 and leave the bonus on the table.

For a density bonus to actually produce more housing, it needs to do one of two things: either maximize what’s achievable under 7 stories (wood-frame construction), or provide enough additional FAR and height to make the jump to 12+ stories worthwhile. Neither the current law, the proposed TOC bill, nor the Driscoll transit improvements bonus succeed on that score.

As I wrote last year in The Citizen, the City’s approach to planning for mid-rise housing needs a major reframe. The Parker administration’s 45-foot height increase for mixed-use zones — about 4 stories — also bumps up against the first cost cliff that Eriksen and Orlando identified, where costs jump 8 percent between 3 and 4 stories due to the shift from wood-frame to steel-frame construction. These are smaller buildings on smaller lots, so the stakes per project are lower, but it’s the same dynamic: a bonus that pushes a building right into the most expensive part of the cost curve, rather than past it.

Transit as a service is popular, as we learned during the budget fight last year. But the policies that transit needs in place to be excellent are often unpopular: sufficient revenue (taxes and fares), dedicated street space (parking), land use that supports ridership (denser buildings, less parking).

Asking the PA Senate Republicans, mostly from rural areas of the Commonwealth, to vote to raise taxes for transit was a tough ask. Asking District Council members to loosen their grip on certain kinds of zoning cases so more people can live near the train is also a tough ask of a different variety.

But the local zoning changes cost zero public dollars, and would have important benefits for commercial corridors and neighborhood economies even putting to the side the impact on transit. Ultimately, every single person with some responsibility for a piece of this issue has to do the hard thing in front of them for SEPTA to continue to serve all the people who need it today, and the growing number of people who will ride if we make it really great.

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