Philly City Council introduced some of Mayor Parker’s housing initiative legislation, but apprehension remains

Philadelphia City Council on Thursday jump-started the legislative process for approving parts of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s signature housing initiative after spending weeks interrogating the plan and leaving its future in limbo.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier on Thursday introduced three zoning bills that Parker initially sent to lawmakers on May 1. Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young Jr. previously introduced another. That means Council has introduced all but one of the bills Parker sent city lawmakers in her initial batch of legislation related to her $2 billion Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E, initiative, which aims to build or preserve 30,000 housing units.

That’s a good sign for Parker, who is hoping Council approves much of her plan before lawmakers adjourn for summer break in mid-June.

“Working in partnership with City Council, we’re one step closer towards the building, preserving and restoring of 30,000 units of housing,” Tiffany W. Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff, said in a statement.

But Council members on Thursday showed no signs of movement when it came to parts of Parker’s housing proposal that would limit their near-total control over the city’s land disposition process — a key component of Parker’s plan. as the mayor hopes to rapidly sell off city-owned parcels to developers for housing construction.

» READ MORE: Mayor Parker wants City Council members to give up a little power over land. They don’t love the idea.

Parker on May 1 introduced a measure to remove a step in the Philadelphia Land Bank’s disposition process that is controlled by Council. On Thursday, she sent lawmakers another, more significant proposal that would help fast-track the sales of 1,000 city-owned properties. No Council member has touched either bill.

The mayor on Thursday also transmitted legislation that would authorize the sale of city bonds to raise money for the housing programs Parker wants to fund through H.O.M.E. The mayor is hoping to issue $400 million this fall and another $400 million in 2027, for a total borrowing cost of $1.3 billion that the city would pay back over 20 years.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker’s housing plan relies on $800 million in bonds. Here’s what you need to know about Philly’s city debt.

Lawmakers last week expressed concern over the mayor’s plan to use city debt to finance those programs during an at-times tense budget hearing on the H.O.M.E. initiative. No Council member introduced the bond authorization legislation Parker transmitted Thursday.

“We have many miles to go to achieve our goals, and these bills are steps in the right direction,” Parker said in a statement earlier this month. “Now our partners in City Council can keep us moving forward by introducing and passing the bills without delay.”

Parker proposed H.O.M.E. in addition to her $6.7 billion city budget proposal, which must be approved before July 1. Council’s last scheduled session before then is less than a month away on June 12, creating a tight window for lawmakers and the administration to finalize negotiations over the city’s taxing and spending plans while also considering the housing bills for the first time.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker pitches her $6.7 billion budget plan as Trump’s ‘grave’ threat to cut aid to cities looms

“Everyone wants to address the housing crisis here in the city of Philadelphia, so that’s a major part of it,” Council President Kenyatta Johnson told reporters Thursday, “but [there are] other issues around gun violence, other issues around addressing the issue of illegal dumping, other issues around making sure that we continue to continuously support our parks and our recreational facilities.”

Johnson said he is still hopeful lawmakers can wrap up their work in that time frame but will consider adding an extra session if needed.

Gauthier, who chairs the Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless, said the three Parker bills she introduced Thursday have broad support.

Parker’s bill on parking requirements — which force builders to provide a certain amount of spaces per housing unit — would eliminate the mandates in the city’s most flexible zoning categories, known as CMX-5 and CMX-4. In practice, this would mostly affect swathes of Center City, University City, North Broad Street, and a handful of other areas.

“Those are some of the densest areas of the city,” Gauthier said. “We think that’s appropriate to make sure that we can build as much hopefully affordable housing as possible.”

Parker is also proposing a new zoning category, called RTA-2, which would allow duplexes in areas that are zoned for rowhouses. If Council passes the legislation creating this new zoning category, lawmakers would then map it on to various areas of the city, theoretically making it less controversial by giving members the final say in how it is applied.

“We think that’s good, too, because it gets us density and hopefully affordability in a way that is not too dense for the neighbors,” Gauthier said. “Sometimes people are concerned about really large multifamily structures, but this allows us to do that in a gentler way.”