Residents protests rezoning

Community opposition has prompted the temporary halt of a proposed rezoning bill that would limit new development west of the Penn campus. Under the bill, all zoning designations would become more restrictive. Current C-4 commercial areas would become R-10 residential zones, meaning that people wanting to open certain types of businesses would have to receive approval from a zoning board. Residents said they are angry because they feel they were left out of discussions about the proposed rezoning. Zoning controls are designed to prevent the overcrowding of land and congestion on the streets -- and to regulate the development of land use. "We became aware of exactly how detrimental the current zoning was to our ability to control anything that happened in this neighborhood," Spruce Hill Community Association President Barry Grossbach said. Angry West Philadelphia residents entered City Hall last Thursday, prepared to protest the passing of the bill, but found that they were beaten to the punch. City Council decided to table Bill No. 000643 due to residents' complaints that the potential impact of the bill has not been properly explained. Residents also claimed that the bill is part of Penn's attempts to expand further into West Philadelphia. "One of the biggest problems is that we're left out of the process," community activist Rev. Larry Falcon said. "Even if there is an advantage in this rezoning process, then they should do it with us, not for us and to us." Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who represents WestPhiladelphia, said there will be a community meeting in early March to address residents' concerns. "[The bill] is on hold until we have a community meeting to talk about it," Blackwell said. "I want what the community wants. It's that simple." Neighbors Against McPenntrification, a community activist group, claim that in the 1960s, similar rezoning codes displaced residents from the African-American Black Bottom neighborhood. The activists fear that this change in zoning may be a precursor to similar displacement. But Grossbach dismissed those claims. "It is zoned in such a way that there is no way of stopping most anything from happening to it," Grossbach said. "People have been misled. The very people that protested stood the most to gain." Residents claimed that rezoning would increase property value, in turn attracting businesses with a lot of capital to West Philadelphia. Neighbors Against McPenntrification said that this could result in expensive high-rise developments that current residents could not afford, adding that the rezoning would hurt the area's small minority-owned businesses. "We demand the immediate halt to all development by the University west of 38th Street until the legality of their moves be publicly reviewed by the entire City Council, and full disclosure be made to all parties involved, and where all the funding has come from," Falcon said. But Blackwell and Grossbach said the University is not involved in the rezoning plans. "I think that neighborhood groups are always suspicious of any University expansion," Blackwell said. "The Spruce Hill rezoning was proposed by the community, not by Penn." A zoning code cannot take away a property owner's right to continue to use land for any legal use that existed prior to the enactment of the code. Zoning changes can be made through a politically-appointed zoning board that reviews the impact of proposed changes on the community. A notice is then posted to inform neighborhood residents of the rezoning.