Draft TOD overlay ordinance presented as planners map station area and developer incentives

Consultants working on a transit-oriented development (TOD) overlay showed the Reading Planning Commission a draft ordinance and station-area visuals on Jan. 21 as part of a broader plan anticipating reintroduced passenger rail service.

Owen, a consultant on the TOD project, told the commission the overlay is being developed “in anticipation of the reintroduction of rail between Reading and Philadelphia” and that the team has coordinated with the Reading Parking Authority and other stakeholders while Stantec studies permanent station location options.

The nut graf: the draft overlay would apply to roughly a half‑mile to one‑third‑mile radius around the proposed station area (about 1.2–1.3 square miles overall, consultant estimate) and would add by‑right development options, parking‑reduction mechanisms and incentives such as increased height and reduced lot-size minimums to encourage mixed‑use and workforce housing near the station.

Owen described TOD best practices the draft seeks to adopt: concentrated mixed‑use development near transit, pedestrian‑oriented design, ground‑floor active retail and a range of housing types. The draft includes new definitions for uses such as stacked townhouses and artisanal manufacturing and proposes a workforce‑housing requirement; one example shown would require 10% of units in a 100‑unit project to be set aside as workforce housing.

On affordability, the consultant explained how workforce housing would be defined in the overlay: households earning between 60% and 120% of area median income (AMI). “For a four‑person household the AMI in Reading last year was $93,700,” Owen said, explaining the income bands that would qualify under the proposed standard.

The draft also ties parking relief to proximity to transit and to agreements with the Reading Parking Authority or private garages; the team is coordinating those details with the city’s phase‑2 zoning and SALDO amendments. The consultant said some parking and loading requirements are presently staged in SALDO rather than in the zoning text, and city counsel advised that final placement of those standards had not been decided.

Commissioners asked several substantive questions. One commissioner raised concerns about the overlay’s geographic size and potential encroachment into residential neighborhoods; another asked about airport overlay height limits for riverfront sites, noting federal review (FAA) implications. Owen acknowledged both points and said the drafts will be adjusted to respect existing overlays and federal constraints.

The consultant showed photomontages that illustrated possible infill on surface parking authority lots, a repurposed brewery‑area temporary station and scenarios for taller riverfront buildings buffered from low‑lying residential neighborhoods. The draft also anticipates coordination with economic incentive programs (the consultant cited the city’s recent CRIS designation) and potential tax‑abatement or other financial incentives to improve project feasibility.

Staff and consultants said the overlay will be refined with city departments and returned to the commission for further review; no regulatory change was adopted at the workshop.

Ending: The commission asked staff and consultants to coordinate on overlay extent, historic‑district protections and utility capacity issues before the next presentation.