SRA’s 2021 annual report available online
The Suburban Realtors Alliance annual report for 2021 has been posted online. The report recaps some of the municipal issues the Alliance has worked on this year and honors departing board members.

FAQ: National Flood Insurance Program expires Dec. 3
The National Flood Insurance Program’s authority to provide flood insurance is currently set to expire at midnight on Friday, Dec. 3. The National Association of Realtors^® (NAR) is making every effort to secure a long-term reauthorization of the program. NAR has compiled answers to frequently asked questions about what the situation means for upcoming closings and several proactive steps people can take in the meantime. Read more here.
Source: Nar.realtor; 10/27/2021

HECP launches ‘Know Your Responsibilities’ manual
The Housing Equality Center of Pennsylvania (HECP) is excited to share a new, comprehensive fair housing manual for landlords and property managers, titled “Know Your Responsibilities as a Landlord or Property Manager in Pennsylvania.” It includes detailed information on compliance with the Fair Housing Act and Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, as well as Pennsylvania Landlord Tenant Law as it pertains to the rental of private residential property. Limited print copies are available and may be requested by emailing Patricia Bell at bell@equalhousing.org.
Source: HECP; 11/16/2021

Bill’s passage raises hopes for rail’s return along 422 corridor
Local leaders are increasingly hopeful that the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill by Congress represents a giant step toward returning passenger rail service along the Route 422 corridor, from Reading to Philadelphia. The bill adds billions of dollars to funding for Amtrak, and increases the odds that it will fund restoration of passenger service from the Berks County seat to Philadelphia, with stops in Pottstown, Phoenixville, Norristown and elsewhere. That will mean a boost not only to the economy of those areas, but also a reduction in traffic woes along the corridor, according to those involved in the project.
Source: Daily Local; 11/16/2021

Foreclosure starts increase in Pennsylvania, nation
Three months after the end of a federal foreclosure moratorium, foreclosure activity continues to increase in Pennsylvania and nationwide. According to real estate data provider Attom, most foreclosure filings are on vacant and abandoned properties or loans that were in foreclosure before the pandemic. The moratorium covered about 70% of the nation’s mortgages and about 80% of Philadelphia’s home loans. Other policies preventing lenders from starting the foreclosure process will expire at the end of the year, when many homeowners will exit forbearance plans that allowed them to delay mortgage payments during the pandemic. Click here for the full article from the Inquirer.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer; 11/10/2021

Bensalem approves land development plans for former middle school
Bensalem Township Council voted to approve a new zoning district and land development plans for The Hub, a multi-use commercial and residential project on the site of the former Armstrong Middle School on Street Road. The school property, vacant for years, was purchased by 2201 Street Road LLC last year from the Bensalem School District for $7.3 million. Plans for the almost 35-acre property include 40 housing units spread throughout a total of 11 buildings that will also house retail and office space. There will also be a restaurant, gas station and convenience store. The project needed Bensalem to approve a Street Road Mixed Used (SRM) zone to allow it to proceed. Residents opposed to the project are worried about additional traffic — something that the developer addressed when scaling back the original plan, which called for 250 townhomes. The current plan also addresses stormwater management in the neighborhood, specifically flooding along Hansel Drive, and includes more than seven acres of parkland for use by township residents. The proposed condominiums will be one-story, two- and three-bedroom units expected to market for around $360,000.
Source: Bucks County Courier Times; 11/15/2021

Bristol Borough Council member resigns
Bristol Borough Council recently voted 8-1 after an executive session to conduct its own interviews for a police chief without hiring an outside firm to do the search. Bristol Borough Police Chief Steven Henry announced his retirement earlier this year. Henry was hired by council six years ago after a search aided by an outside recruitment firm. Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said the in-house hiring was supported by all members of council with the exception of Councilman Tony Devine. After the vote, Devine announced his resignation from council, citing what he said is a lack of transparency on the board and noting that he couldn’t agree with the board’s decision not to contract a recruitment firm to find a new police chief for the 12-person force. DiGuiseppe said council will appoint a resident of the North Ward to fill the remaining two years of Devine’s term. Any interested North Ward resident who wants to apply should contact the borough manager’s office. Visit the borough website for more information.
Source: Bucks County Courier Times; 11/11/2021

Palisades superintendent named 2022 PA Superintendent of the Year
Dr. Bridget O’Connell, superintendent of the Palisades School District, has been named the 2022 Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA). The group noted that the award is part of a national program whose purpose “is to further inspire exemplary educational leadership, and promote a sense of confidence and pride in the nation’s public schools.” Areas of O’Connell’s accomplishments that were cited in the release included numerous state and national honors received by individual schools and the district as a whole “to reflect student achievement, academic recognition, and a focus on the whole child.” Other accomplishments included: the establishment of “pathway programs” that allow students to gain real-world experience in career opportunities while they are still in school; the development of effective online learning options years before the pandemic; and various extracurricular “initiatives that have served as a model for countless districts statewide and nationally.” Dr. O’Connell earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Lehigh University, and is a graduate of Easton Area High School. The Palisades School Board recently appointed her to a third five-year term as superintendent.
Source: Bucks County Herald; 11/11/2021

No tax increase anticipated in Wrightstown
Wrightstown Township supervisors are working on a 2022 budget that maintains the current tax rate. The general fund budget will increase 3.9% to $2.05 million, with police protection coverage being the largest budgeted item at roughly $846,000. Despite the increase in expenses, the supervisors feel they will be able to keep the township millage rate at 9.23 mills. A property assessed at $60,000 would see a township real estate tax bill of $554 if the millage rate remains unchanged. The last millage rate increase for the township was in 2018, according to Supervisors Chairman Chester Pogonowski. The budget is scheduled to be finalized in December.
Source: Bucks County Herald; 11/4/2021

Housing Link program offers bonuses up to $2K for Realtors and landlords
The Bucks County Housing Link is offering incentives to Realtors and landlords who partner with the Housing Link to lease to qualified program participants. Through the Bonus for Bucks Landlords Event, landlords who are new to the Housing Link program can receive a bonus equal to one month of rent when they lease to a Housing Link program participant. Landlords and Realtors who refer a landlord to the Housing Link can receive a $2,000 finder’s fee if that landlord ends up participating. Aside from the cash bonus, landlords involved in the program receive reliable rent, continuity coverage payments between leases, the ability to collect additional referral bonuses, and support from the Housing Link staff. For more information on the program, visit the Bonus for Bucks Landlords website and read answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Bonus for Bucks Landlords runs through Jan. 31, 2022, and is a joint effort between the Bucks County Housing Link Partners, the Bucks County Association of Realtors and the Suburban Realtors Alliance.
Source: Bucks County Housing Link; 7/14/2021

Chester County posts proposed 2022 budget
Chester County’s proposed 2022 budget is available here. A public budget meeting will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 30, at 6 p.m. in the Historic Courthouse, 2 N. High St., Courtroom 1, West Chester). Residents are invited to participate during the public comment portion in person or via Zoom. Details can be found on the county website.
Source: Chester County; 11/10/2021

Coatesville gets $91K for revitalization
The state’s Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) recently announced $80,000 in grant funding for Coatesville 2nd Century Alliance, and $11,250 for Habitat for Humanity Chester County. The 2nd Century Alliance will in turn use the money to fund three façade improvement grants that will enhance existing building stock and entice new businesses to the district. The Alliance money will help to establish a systematic cleanup program to mitigate weeds and litter. Habitat for Humanity Chester County will use its funding to complete an affordable housing development in Coatesville. NAP is a program of the Department of Economic and Community Development program that encourages private sector investment into projects that will help improve distressed communities. The program provides tax credits to businesses that support projects addressing neighborhood and community problems.
Source: Daily Local; 11/12/2021

Tower Health fights for tax-exempt status
Nonprofit hospitals, municipalities and school districts across Pennsylvania are closely watching the tax assessment cases involving Tower Health. The Chester County cases involving Phoenixville, Brandywine and Jennersville hospitals and another tax assessment dispute involving Pottstown Hospital are on appeal. In October, a judge rejected Tower’s bid for property tax exemptions for three of its Chester County hospitals. Noting the money the hospitals transferred to Tower, Judge Jeffrey Sommer ruled the hospitals are more aligned with for-profit companies. Also in October, a Montgomery County judge ruled the opposite way — saying Pottstown Hospital can continue to be exempt from property taxes. Pottstown School District had challenged the hospital’s nonprofit status and argued that pay incentives for executives and Tower’s push for higher compensation for former CEO Clint Matthews was more in-line with for-profit companies. The Chester County ruling has led local municipalities and school districts across the state to consider tendering property tax notices to nonprofit health care entities that long have been deemed exempt from such expenses. Tower recently wrote off $370 million in value of its hospitals. Not including the write-off, Tower posted a $243.5 million loss for fiscal 2021, which ended June 30. It’s regarded as an improvement over fiscal 2020, when it lost $415.3 million. Tower announced in September it would close Jennersville and sell Chestnut Hill and about 20 urgent cares to Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic.
Source: Daily Local; 11/16/2021

What’s at stake in the fight over the Chester Water Authority
The number of water providers in Pennsylvania is dwindling. The water isn’t drying up — the public utilities are, as for-profit water companies take over. In the case of Philadelphia’s suburbs, Aqua Pennsylvania reigns supreme, providing water and wastewater services to more than 1.4 million people across the state. Over the years, Aqua PA, a subsidiary of Essential Utilities Inc., has steadily grown its customer base by purchasing municipally owned water assets. In 2021 alone, the company has already bought two systems in Chester County, in Willistown and East Whiteland townships. And for some time now, Aqua has had its eye on the Chester Water Authority (CWA). Based in the city of Chester, CWA is one of the region’s largest public water systems, serving about 49,000 customers — more than 200,000 people — across 37 municipalities in Delaware and Chester counties. Aqua’s latest effort to buy the water authority’s assets from the perennially broke city that created it in 1939 depends on approval by the receiver overseeing Chester’s finances and a decision by the state Supreme Court. The CWA appealed a September Commonwealth Court ruling giving the city a path to sell the authority, which would provide a much-needed cash infusion. Both the CWA and its ratepayers, worried about the potential for skyrocketing bills and other concerns, banded together in a quest to thwart the sale — so far, without much success. Read more here.
Source: WHYY; 11/14/2021

1,700 units of housing are set to vanish in next 5 years
Agreements between landlords and government agencies like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) underpin upwards of 34,000 affordable housing units across Philadelphia, according to the National Housing Preservation Database. That more than eclipses the nearly 12,900 units of traditional public housing at the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s projects or scattered site homes. But unlike publicly owned housing, federally assisted units rely on property owners tapping a variety of rental subsidies or tax credit deals in exchange for agreeing to restrictions that preserve developments as affordable housing for a set period of time. Vouchers and tax-credit housing have increasingly supplanted public housing nationally. While these arrangements often last for decades, many thousands of units have also seen their affordability restriction expire over the years. Some have been redeveloped or taken market rate. In Philadelphia, 1,700 units are tied to affordability restrictions that could expire over the next five years, and 3,400 over the next decade — some have already run through their initial terms and are being renewed at the will of their respective owners. In all, more than 10% of all the federally assisted housing units in the city are potentially at risk. Developers are creating new units under the same programs, but experts say they’re not signing on fast enough to replace the losses — let alone the attrition of non-subsidized units rented by private landlords on the cheap. Observers see a slow-moving storm set to destabilize a housing market that is already strained by unmet demand for decent, affordable options. “I think it’s very serious,” said Greg Heller, a director at management consulting firm Guidehouse and a former head of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, which has underwritten many affordable apartment developments. “This is definitely a threat to affordable housing. Not just in Philly, but nationwide.”
Source: PlanPhilly; 11/11/2021

Philly chooses Design Workshop to ‘reimagine’ Ben Franklin Parkway
The City of Philadelphia has chosen a landscape architecture and urban planning firm to lead the redesign of the iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The firm, Design Workshop, is expected to move forward with the long-awaited redesign in early 2022. City officials said that their goal is to make the century-old parkway stretching from Logan Circle to the Philadelphia Museum of Art safer and more attractive to people on foot or bikes. Design Workshop rose to the top because of its emphasis on inclusivity and equity, its plan to create “meaningful connections” to help Philadelphians re-engage with the Parkway, and its framework for making iterative improvements to the Parkway over time, city officials said. Design Workshop will run a process of public engagement, then produce a schematic design, a recommended project schedule and cost estimates.
Source: PlanPhilly; 11/9/2021

Opinion: Philly needs more affordable housing, not cumbersome changes to zoning rules
A group calling itself the Citywide Registered Community Organization Coalition of Philadelphia sent a letter to city council members asking them to find a way to rein in the zoning board, which it claims is giving carte blanche to developers. “We fear that our politicians and city officials are turning their backs on Philadelphia’s longtime residents, neighborhoods, and community organizations, preferring instead to court wealthy investors and developers,” the letter reads. The letter’s authors have asked city council to replace everyone on the five-member board, and create an oversight panel to review its decisions and consider complaints about potential conflicts of interest. In an apparent response to the letter, Council President Darrell L. Clarke announced plans to overhaul the zoning board, but his approach is short-sighted. It is easy to see how new construction can frustrate residents. Philadelphia allows contractors to start work as early as 7 a.m., meaning you might wake up to the sound of construction equipment. The city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, which is tasked with regulating construction, has had persistent trouble filling staff openings to meet the needs of a growing city, meaning unscrupulous contractors aren’t always dealt with in a timely fashion. And, in some cases, shoddy workmanship has had calamitous effects on homes. These concerns, while valid, need not be addressed by clamping down on new construction, or through a radical rethinking of zoning rules. Philadelphia is now on a trajectory of growth, and though still below its mid-20th century peak in terms of pure population numbers, the city has more households than ever before. That combination of a reduction in household size and population growth is fueling demand for housing — both of the affordable and market-rate variety — throughout the city, and that demand isn’t going away. Read the Inquirer Editorial Board’s full article here.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer; 11/12/2021

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