Philadelphia City Council member moves to rezone closing schools to curb developer interest in valuable land

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A member of Philadelphia City Council has introduced rezoning legislation for a number of schools that are proposed to be closed in her district to take away their land value for redevelopment.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier believes the schools are worth too much for redevelopers, and that’s why they were put on the closure list.

Under the plan, the five schools would be rezoned only for “civic use” and not for “multifamily housing use,” which is currently making them prime targets for redevelopment.

“It is zoning to correct the zoning that’s there now,” Gauthier said. “So, these are school spaces. Many of them are currently zoned for multifamily. We did corrective zoning to rezone them as civic spaces, school spaces, because that is the use of those properties.”

Without the multifamily zoning, developers would have less incentive to buy the prime real estate, which Gauthier believes will influence the minds of those in the school district that want to shutter them and sell the land.

“I think it’s highly inappropriate to be having this closure conversation at the same time we’re having a discussion about what land we like to give over to developers. So I’m removing that from the equation,” Gauthier said. “This conversation needs to be about students and communities and the well-being of the people in West Philadelphia.”

Gauthier gave an example of one of the schools on the closure list.

“If you think for a second about Paul Robeson High, it’s in the heart of University City. It’s an amazing school, 96% graduation rate, sending kids to Harvard, sending kids to acclaimed [historically Black colleges and universities]. I don’t understand why the district wants to close it. And if it’s not about real estate, then they need to tell me what it is about,” she said.

Twenty schools were initially proposed for closure, but the district trimmed that by two — Conwell Middle School and Motivation High School. Motivation would merge with Robeson in Motivation’s building.

The school district will likely fight the move at upcoming hearings over the next few months.