Artist Maria Moller stands in the vacant lot where the
Providence Dye Works once stood in East Kensington on April 2, 2014. In the
background is one of the few industrial buildings still standing in that area.
( CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer )
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Two members of City Council are proposing changes to a
new zoning classification that’s meant to encourage the redevelopment of former
industrial sites into mixed-use residential projects.
The category, Industrial Residential Mixed-use (IRMX),
was created during the overhaul of the zoning code that culminated when a new
code was enacted in 2012. Because it’s a new category, it has yet to be mapped
into many neighborhoods.
But Councilmen Mark Squilla and Kenyatta Johnson are
co-sponsoring a bill that would make a number of changes to the category. The
changes would require IRMX projects to include non-residential uses,
incentivize artisan or light-industrial uses, reduce the maximum lot coverage,
and ease parking and loading regulations.
Why make a bunch of detailed changes to a zoning category
that still has to be substantially mapped into neighborhoods?
Matt Ruben, president of Northern Liberties Neighborhood
Association, laid out the potential pitfalls of IRMX in a column for PlanPhilly
last year.
“IRMX is an odd duck: It allows industrial and
residential uses, but it does not REQUIRE an industrial use,” Ruben wrote. “So
IRMX is a residential developer’s dream: It’s got the lax zoning rules of
industrial property, but it allows for the construction of a 100% residential
project.”
City planner Andrew Meloney said that the Planning
Commission brought the changes to Council in order to prevent IRMX properties
from being developed in the way Ruben warned.
“We started noticing that if we were going to zone places
[IRMX], there was a real push to just knock things down and build townhomes or
something,” Meloney said.
Meloney said he couldn’t think of any areas where that
actually happened, but the writing was on the wall.
Councilman Squilla noticed it, too. He said he’d heard
proposals from developers who wanted to build strictly-residential projects in
IRMX zones, and he wanted to figure out a way to prevent the new classification
from being used that way. He said he wants the category to be used for active
mixed-use projects, live-work spaces, artists’ studios and things of that
nature.
“We think that these changes … help make that a little
easier, and make it a little harder to do straight condos,” Squilla said.
For his part, Councilman Johnson said his support is
partly an outgrowth of the ongoing planning of Washington Avenue west of Broad
Street. The corridor is split between two planning districts, and neighbors on
both sides have been debating whether to push residential density or commercial
uses on the avenue. Johnson said he’s hoping to land on a category that
accommodates existing industrial businesses and fits in the residential context
of surrounding neighborhoods.
“Through the South District planning process we are
gathering community input, and the Planning Commission will make formal
recommendations regarding Washington Avenue in June,” Johnson said in a
statement sent to PlanPhilly. “We're hoping to have the IRMX classification
ready in the case that the Planning Commission recommends it for Washington
Ave.”
The bill will go before the Planning Commission for a
recommendation next week.
Source: Philly.com
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