November 20: PA House reverses, passed transportation funding bill | “Gentrification relief” update | Land Bank bill still being debated | Condos vs apts for 260 S. Broad | Construction waste recycling

Happy Wednesday, Streeters.

Third time’s the charm for the transportation funding bill in the Pennsylvania House: Remember how the House voted against a major transportation-funding bill on Monday night? Well, in a “rare and abrupt turnaround” on Tuesday, eight votes were flipped and the transportation funding bill passed 104-95, the Inquirer reports. Now Senate will take up the bill and it could be back to the House for final passage this week. The bill means $340 million of the approximately $475 million earmarked for transit under the bill would go to SEPTA, averting a “doomsday budget” scenario. “We’re just thrilled. . . . It’s long overdue, and it looks like we finally are going to be able to address some of the issues we need to deal with,” said Joseph M. Casey, SEPTA’s general manager. “We have about $500 million worth of desperately needed projects that are ready to go and that will hit the streets within six months.”

Meanwhile the State Senate passed a bill that would help provide property tax relief to longtime residents in neighborhoods that gentrified around them, the Inquirer reports. The City wants to provide relief to residents who meet specific economic conditions whose taxes have leapt due to the recent Actual Value Initiative property tax reform.

Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez will likely introduce an amended land bank bill in a full session of City Council on Thursday, but land bank advocates still think the bill has too much red tape and favors the politically connected and savvy, the Inquirer reports. The most contentious amendment is Council President Darrell Clarke’s last-minute amendment that would push land bank decisions through the Vacant Property Review Committee, in addition to the land bank board and at City Council. The Inquirer notes: “Clarke’s move caught many by surprise, including Quiñones-Sánchez. She has fought for years to get a land bank and feels the goal line is near. ‘His amendments are deal-breakers,’ Quiñones-Sánchez said Tuesday. ‘I’m at the five-yard line.’”

Post Brothers is gearing up to overhaul 260 South Broad Street, but the developer is unclear if they’ll go condo or rental apartments, the Business Journal reports. Ground floor retail tenant Ruth’s Chris Steak House will stay put and “a successful New York-based Latin food concept is being eyed for the other restaurant space.” Sounds like that means earlier rumors of a multi-floor department store on lower floors could be out.

Construction and demolition waste doesn’t have to end up in a landfill. Northeast Philly’s Richard S. Burns and Co. focuses on diverting construction waste from landfills and turning it into reusable materials. Grid profiled the company and notes that Burns is able to transfer 85%-90% of incoming waste using a model that’s both economically and environmentally responsible.

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