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Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I must respectfully but adamantly make known my opposition to
Councilman Clarke's Bill #020078, which would permit flat top
parking lots of inordinate size - 1.5 acres minimum - to infest
our neighborhoods. This bill would permit the worst possible
use of land and would do nothing to solve any perceived parking
problems. There is nothing in the bill to use these lots for
just neighbrohood use. For example, There is NO guarantee in the
language that Mack Trucks couldn't sit there idling for hours

The notion that wind swept asphalt is any kind of solution is
symptomatic of the attitide of the "give up" crowd that would
rather surrender than fight for a healthy city for all kinds of
people.

While it is a fact that parking in some areas is problematic,
eliminating the need for variances is clearly meant to eliminate
public comment and input. That's wrong. If the true voice of
the community wants a flat lot, so be it. Use the process that
already exists.

With NTI promising vacant lots aplenty, we cannot create a
permissive environment for land waste instead of land use.
Please do not accept Bill # 020078.

Sincerely,
Joshua R. Vincent

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
I am strongly opposed to Councilman Darrell Clarke's bill 020078
which would change the Philadelphia Zoning Code to allow parking
lots in residential neighborhoods.

The bill has a number of obvious problems including 1)lack of
attention to the likely commercial use of the lots in residential
neighborhoods, 2)replacement of the variance requirement, which
currently makes it possible for residents to challenge land use
in their neighborhood effectively and at reasonable cost, with a
certificate, and 3)the 1.5 acre size requirement, whether
contiguous or not.

Generally this bill would only produce more ugly parking lots in
residential neighborhoods where citizens have been trying to
rebuild their communities. We would benefit much more for
support for community gardens or parks in areas where homes have
been torn down. Gardens and parks bring people together, create
green space, food, and beauty rather than ugly, hot spots which
do not support interaction or community development. I urge you
to oppose Darrell Clark's
bill.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Please do not change the residential parking lot law. We don't
want to replace vacant buildings with parking lots, it's just
another form of blight. Our neighborhoods are places for
families,homes,and businesses not places for cars,trucks and
pollution.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I am strongly opposed to Councilman Darrell Clarke's bill 020078
which would change the Philadelphia Zoning Code to allow parking
lots in residential neighborhoods.

There are many bad provisions in this bill including the fact
that it would not require residential parking lots to be
dedicated to residential parking thereby allowing commercial usage.

This bill would also eliminate the variance requirement, which
would effectively take away residents ability to challenge the
use of these lots for parking. The only recourse would be
expensive and lengthy court cases to challenge the required
certificate.

Additionally the size requirement under this bill requires lots
to be 1.5 acres. However, if smaller parcels where owned in the
same block, it does not require them to be contiguous.

Generally this bill would only produce more ugly parking lots in
residential neighborhoods where citizens have been trying to
rebuild their communities. I urge you to oppose Darrell Clark's
bill.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is strongly opposed to any
bill that would make it easier to build parking lots in
residential areas. Parking lots in our neighborhoods will have a
strong negative impact on the quality of life in our city. Our
residential sidewalks should be places where families can stroll
without having to worrry about being run over by a car mid-
block! Intersections in this city are dangerous enough without
allowing private cars and trucks additional opportunity to crash
into pedestrians mid-block! City sidewalks should be safe havens
for residents to walk, not another opportunity to be hit by a
car or truck!
This is especially concerning as the city prepares to knock down
buildings and create vacant lots. If it is easy to make that
space into a parking lot, what chance do commuinty playgrounds
or gardens have? Which is a better vision for our city -
nieghborhoods with empty lots filled with trucks and abandoned
cars or playgrounds and gardens filled with children.
As our elected representatives, we trust you to make the best
choices for our community. Please choose people over parking
lots.
Thank you-
Sue McNamara Tancredi

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

As a longtime member of the media, i've come to question the
ethics of large corporations of which i am an employee of. i
also question the politics of politics. I have seen up close and
personal some of the disturbing and dishonest ways in which
deals are made in this city. I have watched and whenever
possible been part of revealing the dirty business done by our
politicians and i've seen the corruption of some of our most
important government agencies. I have lived in philadelphia for
41 years and only recently purchased my first home. against
advisement from practically everybody i know to move out of the
city, i remained loyal and hopeful and proud of all the great
things this city has to offer. I don't appreciate the effort on
your part to pass bill # 020078 allowing large parking lots in
residential areas. this is not the way to make our communities
stronger. i go as far to say that i see a clear racist element
to this bill.when many houses are torn down as part of your anti-
blight program, what will be in place to stop developers from
buying up huge lots all over and then just sitting on them
indefinately. do you not realize that the surrounding houses
will be devalued or that these lots are havens for drug dealers,
addicts, garbage and graffitti. i will go as far as to say that
if proper calculations were made, i could prove that the amount
of car exhaust, etc, would be unhealthy and akin to
environmental racism. more will follow. i have to go to work.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

In regard to Councilman Clark's Parking Lot Bill #020078. This
Bill will do ireversable harm, and add to the blight and
deteriation of our residential neighborhoods. The Mayor has
promised to get rid of the blight, and improve residential
area's of our city. Parking Lot's in our residential sections
of the city will do nothing to acheive this end. I implore you
not to pass this horrible Bill.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I would like to register my concern that vacant lots not be
turned into parking lots, but instead, might be places where
lives can be rebuilt, and that affordable housing can replace
those torn down. These lots might be sold at a rate - that
would allows for homes to be built, and for families to come
together.

Thank You
Rev. Rosa M. Key
Tabernacle Evangelical Lutheran Church
59th and Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19139
215-748-5533

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Parking lots do not make good neighbors. When I visit
neighborhoods with lots of parking lots, they are desolate and
have no sense of neighborhood.

Don't pass this bill that would make it so much easier to create
new parking lots.

Please write me at your earliest convenience to tell me where you
stand on this legislation.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Councilman Clarke's proposal allowing the creation of
parking lots in residential neighborhoods is a bad idea.
Variances were instituted as a protection to citizens allowing
careful consideration and study of zoning issues. To bypass
the process guts the original intent of variances. If the
parking lots are such a great idea then they will have no
problem getting the appropriate variance. The "certificate"
idea is bad for the city and should not be passed.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

As most urban planners will tell you, nothing deadens a
streetscape like a massive surface parking lot. I think we
should think very carefully before we make it easier to turn
Philadelphia neighborhoods into suburban-style sprawl. If that
happens, we’ll be offering exactly what the suburbs have with
higher taxes and poorer services.

Do we really want to take away the ability of neighborhoods to
determine whether they want this potentially blighting
development in their areas?

As I understand it, this bill was written to solve problems
created by a lawsuit over a parking lot in one neighborhood.
Let’s not take away the rights of citizens all over Philadelphia
to deal with a single issue in one community.

The cause of this problem, by the way, seems to have been a
zoning board that grants variances at the drop of a hat,
ignoring city regulations. This is yet another example of a ZBA
variance overturned by state courts. When is the zoning board
going to get the message that its job is not to hand out
variances like Halloween candy?

In the meantime, I have the utmost confidence in Councilman
Clarke’s ability to devise a more appropriate solution to the
Fairmount parking lot problem than this ill-advised bill.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
Re: Bill 78
This sounds like a Neighborhood Obliteration" bill. First, the
plan is to knock down all empty buildings, then with that
wasteland we make blocks of parking lots for trucks, including
garbage trucks and abandoned cars.
It's bad enough that we litter poor neighborhoods with illegal
billboards with their toxic messages of booze and cigarettes for
the inhabitants to have their eyes and minds barraged with.
Just as caring civic associations and neighborhood citizens
refused to allow another sleazy bill (629) go through, you will be
hearing the outrage of citizens and community organizations on
this one as well.
So follow your elected conscience please and turn this bill down.
Thank you.