Council advances bills on truck cranes, vinyl siding

MANAGING A NEW, INVASIVE SPECIES: TRUCK CRANES

Henon also introduced a bill to regulate mobile cranes, which are the vehicle-bound cranes that dot Center City and its surrounding neighborhoods. They are in contrast to the gargantuan tower cranes, which are clearly visible from afar as the skyline expands, and are already regulated.

“Most of the action is with these mobile cranes, especially with uptick of economic development in Philadelphia,” said Henon. “Mobile cranes are in every neighborhood and so that’s where most of the accidents happen when it comes to construction safety.”


The bill will basically bring the regulation of mobile cranes up to par with the rules that govern their mammoth counterparts. That means the Department of License and Inspections will enforce accreditation for the certificates necessary to operate the vehicles and subject the equipment to regular yearly inspections. (The department’s own workers won’t be looking over the equipment themselves — that’s for third party engineers — but the city will perform audits to ensure the inspections are happening.)

Henon, along with Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, failed to pass an earlier version of this bill in previous Council sessions.  Henon says he doesn’t expect opposition from the Building Industry Association or the General Building Contractors Association (GBCA), saying that both have been involved in crafting the legislation.

“The bill has some good components that elevate the requirements to safely operate mobile cranes,” said Lance Claiborne, Director of Industry Relations for the GBCA. “We look forward to continuing our conversation with the councilman to further improve this bill.”

PARKER DOESN’T WANT TO HEAR IT ON VINYL

Councilmember Cherelle Parker introduced a zoning overlay in an attempt to control the building materials that developers in her district can use. Several longtime City Council observers said they doubted the legality of the legislation, saying it may be beyond the police powers of the city.

The bill would apply an overly to her entire district, the ninth, which covers much of upper North Philadelphia and some of the city’s northwestern neighborhoods. The legislation lists a series of materials that would not be allowed on any residential or commercial façade visible from the public right of way. These would include vinyl siding, horizontal aluminum siding, or stucco that covers more than 30 percent of the façade.

Parker frames the legislation as an attempt to help protect the “middle neighborhoods.” She said the bill would require those who want to use the outlawed materials to “go through the zoning process” and that it “emulates existing design standards” in neighborhoods like Queen Village and Powelton Village.

“One of the main ways I am working to assist these middle neighborhoods is the preservation of our historic housing stock,” said Parker. “The historic brick and stone homes of the 9th Council District are an incredible asset that residents strongly want to protect, but residents have recently witnessed an increase in construction using lower quality building materials.”

Matt McClure, head of Ballard Spahr’s Zoning and Land Use, said he didn’t think the zoning code was the appropriate legislative vehicle for addressing the issues Parker is concerned with.

“There may be a practical basis for regulating the zoning code by councilmanic district under the zoning code, but there is not a legal basis,” said McClure.

This is not the first time Parker has acted against the use of such materials. The first instance took place on a far smaller scale. In July, Parker successfully worked to stop the demolition of a stone, single-family house in her district. A developer wished to knock the structure down and build two twin houses with vinyl-siding in its place.

Source: Plan Philly