New zoning maps to guide Fishtown development

Two bills updating the zoning maps in Fishtown are headed toward passage after being approved by the City Planning Commission on Tuesday.

The bills, introduced by Council members Mark Squilla and María Quiñones-Sánchez, cover a large swath of the neighborhood, including portions of the Frankford Ave. and Girard Ave. commercial corridors, as well as waterfront properties on the Delaware River. The legislation preserves some industrial-commercial mixed-use zoning on Delaware Avenue, north of Penn Treaty Park.

The power plant directly north of the park would be rezoned to CMX-3, the commercial zoning category that covers much of the Central Delaware waterfront. The plant went up for sale last fall, and Bart Blatstein, who built the Piazza in Northern Liberties, has contracted to build hotels and event space there.

The two bills, which haven’t yet been scheduled for a committee hearing in Council, would add to more than 1,750 acres of city land that have already been rezoned as part of the Philadelphia2035 planning process, according to Gary Jastrzab, the Commission’s director. Another 3,000 acres are scheduled to be remapped in the next fiscal year, Jastrzab said.

Jordan Rushie, the president of Fishtown Neighbors Association, told the Commission on Tuesday that his group fully supports the new maps.

More detail in the video below. See the proposed maps here and here.