Council committee adopts amendment letting ZBA condition variances on affordable units

The Philadelphia City Council Committee on Rules on May 21 adopted an amendment to Bill 250041 and voted to report the bill with a favorable recommendation for first reading. The ordinance would amend section 14-303 of the Philadelphia zoning code to authorize the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) to condition some variance approvals on the provision of deed-restricted or otherwise-enforceable affordable housing.

The bill’s sponsor, Councilmember Katherine Gauthier, said the measure is intended to ensure developers keep affordability commitments they make at community meetings. “My bill closes this loophole so that promises made by developers are promises kept,” Gauthier said. She described the change as a response to her “Defying Displacement” campaign and noted voters recently approved a related ballot measure.

Paula Brumbelow Burns, director of legislation for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC), testified that the commission supports the goal of increasing affordability but raised legal and operational questions about imposing unit-type or rent-level conditions as a proviso. “Although the commission supports encouraging housing affordability, unit type based on ownership versus rental and the level of rent may not be able to be imposed as a condition of approval for a zoning variance,” Brumbelow Burns said. She said the PCPC had held the case to continue working with the council office and had not yet returned for a formal vote on the revised language.

Ian Haggerty, executive director of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, testified that the board understands the bill’s intent but warned of operational challenges. He said the ZBA typically avoids creating incorporated agreements between parties as provisos because the board lacks authority to compel deed-restriction agreements and does not have staff for long-term monitoring and enforcement. He recommended addressing long-term affordability through code changes rather than ad hoc provisos where possible.

Community and development stakeholders also testified in support. Garrett O’Dwyer, policy director for the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, said the measure would give “teeth” to affordability agreements and urged care to avoid unintentionally affecting federally or state-subsidized projects that already have covenants. Reverend Jay Broadnax of Mount Pisgah AME Church, testifying for the West Powelton Saunders Park RCO, said communities should not be left to enforce affordability promises on their own.

At the committee’s public meeting portion the amendment to Bill 250041 was moved by Councilmember Gauthier, seconded, adopted by voice vote, and later the committee voted to report Bill 250041 (as amended) with a favorable recommendation and to suspend rules for first reading. No roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript.

Why it matters: the bill would formally authorize the ZBA to add enforceable affordability conditions to some variance approvals—potentially changing how developers and neighborhoods secure and enforce affordable units when projects seek relief from zoning rules.

Next steps: the committee reported the bill favorably and moved to place it on first reading at the next Council session.