Mayor Cherelle Parker’s vow to create or preserve 30,000 units of housing during her first term was among the topics that Philadelphia’s planning director, Jessie Lawrence, discussed during a Q&A session held by the Design Advocacy Group last week.
Lawrence also talked about planning the future of the Market East corridor — you can read those remarks here — as well as potential stadium district developments, the city’s Greyhound bus station, the vacant Roundhouse building, historic preservation policy, the role of the Department of Planning and Development, and other subjects.
Here are a few of his comments from last Wednesday’s talk.
The stress of planning housing
Lawrence touted Parker’s hiring of a new chief housing and urban development officer, Angela Brooks, to spearhead the 30,000-unit plan. She comes from Chicago, where she worked for an affordable housing organization, and has served as president of the American Planning Association.
“We needed to make sure that we had some sort of presence in City Hall with proximity to the mayor, to not only be the senior housing advisor to the mayor at any given moment, but to actually just kind of eat, sleep and dream about 30,000 units,” he said.
Lawrence said he was glad Brooks was taking leadership of the initiative, but that it would still keep him busy as well. “By the time 30,000 units roll out, I’ll probably have 30,000 more gray hairs,” he joked.
He noted a recent Center City District report showing that much of the city’s newly built housing is in or near the city’s downtown core, and said satisfying demand for homes could mean building more tall multi-family buildings in Market East and surrounding areas.
Parker had initially said she wanted to see 30,000 affordable units built over four years, but has since altered that goal to creating or preserving 30,000 homes, whether affordable or not. It appears that much of that will consist of the federally funded Philadelphia Housing Authority renovating or “preserving” 20,000 existing units.
Moving on the Roundhouse
The city wants to take action on the future of the former police department headquarters on Race Street, known as the Roundhouse for its distinctive curved design, Lawrence said.
Some residents say it should be preserved and converted to a new use, while others point to the history of police brutality there or the potential difficulty of renovations as reasons it should be demolished. Located near Chinatown, the building adjoins parking lots that could be developed into housing towers.
“I don’t think that there are any clear next steps defined as far as where we want to go, but we definitely see ourselves, maybe, seeking some development proposals for it, whether that’s around the reuse of it or not,” Lawrence said. “We know what kind of asset we do have in the Roundhouse. We also know that it is brutalist architecture that might present some complexities in repurposing as well. We want to remain open to all the opportunities.”
“Chances are it’ll have to be some sort of competitive opportunity” for redevelopment bids, he said. “We expect to have a significant dialog, to be honest with you, because it’s high time for it.”
“Due diligence” on bus station planning
Planners are also working on short- and long-term plans for the city’s intercity bus terminal, which currently consists of a stretch of sidewalk along Spring Garden Street near Front Street in Northern Liberties.
The temporary terminal site has been criticized for its somewhat remote location and for lacking shelter and other amenities typical of Greyhound bus stations.
Lawrence noted that the city last year was preparing to install a heated trailer on Front Street to serve as a waiting room for passengers, but the project was suspended after complaints from nearby residents. “We were going to make some changes there to make that a little bit more comfortable, if you will,” he said. “We’re trying to navigate the community aspect of it.”
Last year the city was awarded a grant to study possible locations for a permanent, indoor bus station near Amtrak’s 30th Street Station. Lawrence didn’t offer any updates on how that’s going, but assured the audience at Wednesday’s talk that it remains a priority.
“There are some solutions that we are looking into and doing our due diligence for, an interim and a permanent site, but it certainly is something that’s very important to us, because we don’t feel like we can continue in the way that we’re continuing right now,” he said. “For a city as big as we are and prominent as we are, we certainly need to do better than Front and Spring Garden.”
The Philadelphia Parking Authority and city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) last year floated the idea of using a garage on 2nd Street in Old City as the bus station, but the idea drew intense opposition from nearby businesses and residents.
A “massive opportunity” in the stadium district
● Among other comments, Lawrence said his department is working on an update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which guides long-term development. The most recent version, called Philadelphia 2035, was published in 2011. (A department spokesperson subsequently clarified that community engagement on the plan update will begin soon.)
● He declined to comment on the status of a federally funded project to reconstruct the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, or of the plan to turn the nearby Family Court Building into a hotel, with a museum and Free Library facility to be built on an adjacent lot.
● Lawrence didn’t directly answer a question about the status of master planning for the stadium district in South Philly, but he noted the complexity of “untangling” ownership of the area’s sprawling parking lots and other properties, and expressed enthusiasm for projects that would activate areas that are “somewhat desolate” much of the time.
“It’s not just the retail, it’s not just … expanding Xfinity Live, but it’s also bringing homes and beds — that’s how you activate something, right?” he said. Xfinity Live houses a mix of restaurants and sports bars close to the stadium complex’s three arenas.
He said the area “presents a massive opportunity,” but there’s no concrete development proposal yet.
“We have seen some very, very vivid images and renderings, but all of that has to consider what it takes in terms of [planning] those kinds of projects, whether it’s certain phased approaches, whether it understands the complexities of the city ordinances and processes that go into that, and even just making sure that the Sixers and Comcast are ready to play nice while we’re all doing this, right?” he said.
Comcast Spectacor last year released a proposal to build a $2.5 billion development in the sports complex over a decade. It would start with new retail, restaurants, a music venue and a hotel, and later bring office buildings and homes.
● When asked about a plan to create a database of historic buildings, he mentioned Treasure Philly, a project of the Historical Commission to preserve cultural resources by documenting them and potentially designating some as historic. Launched in 2023, it’s so far focused on neighborhoods surrounding the intersection of Broad Street and Germantown and Erie avenues in North Philadelphia.
Critics of historic designation argue that it can drive up home ownership costs and property values, and lead to displacement of lower-income households. Lawrence said the city needs to be sensitive to those concerns.
“We need to think about what we’re preserving, but then what we’re also [providing] to people that live in those areas, methods of preserving, as well,” he said. “We probably need to make sure that they have the access to do the things, as far as home repairs and assets, making sure that we’re not pricing out their ability to do just that.”
He was skeptical of the idea of tiered designation, which would allow varying levels of historic preservation requirements, but said the demographics and access to resources in different communities “needs to be considered” as part of preservation efforts.
Editor’s note: Lawrence’s comments on the comprehensive plan have been updated. His comment that it would probably be updated this year was incorrect, according to a department spokesperson.
