City Council passed several major pieces of legislation at its final session of the year Thursday and sent them on to Mayor Cherelle Parker for her signature.
The highest-profile measure was the first annual budget for Parker’s $2 billion housing plan, called Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., following amendments opposed by the mayor that allot more funding to help low-income rather than middle-income residents.
Some of the other bills that won council approval will allow more sidewalk cafes, facilitate the reopening of the Filbert Street Greyhound station, expand a ban on mobile care service providers to more of the city, and create a new retirement savings program for working people.
Read on for a roundup of those measures, or visit WHYY’s PlanPhilly for details of the housing bill.
Sidewalk dining
A bill authored by Councilmember Rue Landau will make it much easier for restaurants on a number of commercial corridors to install outdoor tables and chairs and serve their patrons on the sidewalk.
Currently, for most of the city, City Council has to pass an individual ordinance for each restaurant that wants to set up a sidewalk café. The process can take a year or more, and founder over community objections or bureaucratic red tape.
Landau’s bill substantially increases the number of blocks with “by-right” sidewalk dining, meaning that restaurants in those locations can simply apply online and expect a response within a few days.
Several district councilmembers, including Council President Kenyatta Johnson, agreed to add blocks in their districts to the bill. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier agreed to by-right sidewalk cafes throughout her West Philly district. The full list of blocks and areas is available in the text of the legislation.
The bill was supported by restaurant owners, hospitality industry organizations, business districts and the Parker administration, which welcomed the prospect of having more sidewalk cafes as World Cup games and other events draw an expected surge of tourists next year.
Councilmember Cindy Bass expressed concern that the measure could allow nuisance bars to easily expand their operations outdoors and city agencies would not enforce violations of health and safety regulations. She voted for the bill, but declined to expand by-right sidewalk dining in her district.
Intercity bus terminal
The city’s station for Greyhound and other bus companies will return to its old location on Filbert Street in Center City, thanks in part to a bill passed Thursday.
The measure sponsored by Johnson and Councilmember Michael Driscoll creates a new set of fees that carriers must pay to operate in the city, in order to fund station operations, and authorizes an automatic camera system to track buses. It also allows the Philadelphia Parking Authority to run the terminal on the city’s behalf.
The PPA plans to rent the building from the property owner for 10 years, with a monthly lease that will start at $100,000 a month and increase over time. The agency will spend more than $1 million to renovate the building and reopen it by next May, before next summer’s FIFA soccer games and celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
The project will apparently bring an end, at least for a time, to the saga of the city’s wandering bus terminal. Greyhound vacated the station in June 2023, and since then bus companies have been doing curbside pickup and dropoff, most recently near the eastern end of Spring Garden Street.
Riders have complained about the lack of shelter and basic amenities, and neighbors and nearby businesses have demanded the terminal be relocated. The city is studying options for creating a permanent indoor bus terminal, perhaps near Amtrak’s 30th Street station.
Mobile care provider ban
While most of the many bills that council took up Thursday won unanimous approval, a bill meeasure by Driscoll passed 14-3. It got nays from three of the most progressive councilmembers — Kendra Brooks and Nic O’Rourke of the Working Families Party, and Landau.
The measure totally bans mobile medical service providers from Driscoll’s district in lower Northeast Philadelphia, which includes Harrowgate and other neighborhoods bordering Kensington. Those are typically vans operated by health providers and outreach groups to provide wound care, harm reduction supplies, food, clothing and other services to unhoused drug users.
The vote follows passage earlier this year of a measure restricting mobile care providers in Kensington, where they must now apply for permits and can only operate in a few locations or for limited periods of time. The city started enforcing those rules on Dec. 1.
Residents and councilmembers in the two districts say the vans and the people who use them leave behind litter, discarded needles, and medical and human waste, affecting the quality of life in the neighborhoods. Health providers and harm-reduction advocates have criticized the restrictions, saying people living on the street will be deprived of critical treatment options.
Retirement board, security officer training
Among the other bills that passed is one that aims to create PhillySaves, a new city-run retirement savings program for residents.
Businesses that don’t offer retirement plans would be required to facilitate their employees’ enrollment. People who choose to participate would automatically contribute a portion of their wages to a program similar to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The employers would not contribute or bear any expenses for the plan.
The legislation approved Thursday authorizes a ballot question during a future election, asking residents to amend the city charter to create a Retirement Savings Board that oversees the program.
Council also approved a bill mandating 12 hours of training for newly hired, unarmed private security guards, and another eight hours every year. Councilmember Isaiah Thomas had originally wanted to require 40 hours of initial training, and only by the guards’ union or another nonprofit, but those requirements were scaled back, the Inquirer reported. The final version also exempts security guards for bars and restaurants.
A couple notable proposals did not get a vote Thursday and will have to wait until next year for consideration.
Thomas wants to amend the city charter’s resign-to-run rule, which requires municipal elected officials and city employees to quit their jobs before running for any elected office, other than for reelection. He proposes exempting city elected officials who are seeking non-municipal offices, such as a spot in Congress or the state legislature.
Thomas’ office is working with the Board of Ethics to make changes to the bill, his office said.
Gauthier also held her bill that would block the city from continuing to send its trash to be burned in the Reworld incinerator in Chester. Critics say the waste-to-energy plant is a major source of air pollution and its presence in majority-Black Chester is an example of environmental racism.
The post Council passes bills on sidewalk cafes, Greyhound bus station and mobile care providers appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
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