A bill in Philadelphia City Council proposes a change to a seemingly small and obscure section of the city’s zoning code known as nonconformities. The potential change prompted concerns from several groups: city planners, planning commission board members and a powerful building industry association board member. Some argue that such a change could affect hundreds of thousands of properties citywide, put undue burden on small business owners and flood the city’s zoning board with unnecessary cases. At the core of the concerns is whether the bill would infringe upon a property owner’s ability to do what they want with private land they own. Despite that opposition, the bill was voted out of committee over the summer and is slated to be voted upon very soon, or amended and voted on in the coming weeks. Read more about the bill at PlanPhilly.
Source: PlanPhilly; 12/12/2024