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Philadelphia Passes Long Overdue Zoning Code Reform

Posted by: Jonathan Nettler

26 January 2012 - 1:00pm

The prior code, adopted in 1962 and amended with with nearly 1,000 ad-hoc revisions since then, required a strict separation of uses and outlawed the classic Philadelphia rowhouse typology.

According to David Morley, writing for the APA Sustaining Places blog, the prior code was also seen as a major barrier to investment. The new code, nearly five years in the making, has been streamlined and is geared towards encouraging sustainability, protecting neighborhoods, and promoting quality and design.

While a successful document in many ways, Morley finds it somewhat odd that zoning reform will be enacted ahead of completion of the city's concurrent comprehensive planning effort: the Philadelphia 2035 Citywide Vision.

"In some ways, the approach of simultaneous plan making and zoning reform sounds ideal. The time for completing both projects is shorter and there were many opportunities for participants to see relationships between planning themes and zoning provisions. In other ways, it seems a little strange. The planning team and the zoning team operated independently, and specific plan policies generally followed the development of specific zoning standards, rather than vice versa."

Full Story: Promoting Sustainability through Zoning Reform in Philadelphia
Source: APA Sustaining Places, January 25, 2012
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What the Census will not include is the long-form questions that have, since 1940, asked one-sixth of American households to reveal fine details about their lives. The long form was scrapped following the 2000 Census, so planners who are accustomed to relying on detailed, nuanced Census data to analyze and plan their communities may not get the detail that they expect.
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