Philly Council President Darrell Clarke considers mandatory affordable housing for development in his district

City Council President Darrell L. Clarke is considering greatly expanding requirements that developers include affordable housing in new construction projects — but with income targets that wouldn’t solely aid low-income Philadelphians.

Clarke’s bill, which The Inquirer obtained an advance copy of, would set so-called mandatory inclusionary zoning requirements for most large construction projects across his district, which spans much of North Philadelphia, part of Fishtown, and a swath of Center City that includes Rittenhouse Square.

Under the proposed guidelines, all new projects with 10 or more units would be required to price 20% of those dwellings below market rate sale prices or asking rents.

The legislation defines affordable housing for rental units as rents of no more than 30% of residents’ monthly income, or for-sale units priced for those earning 80% of the region’s median income — about $60,000 for an individual or $84,000 for a family of four.

Those figures mean a one-bedroom apartment priced at about $1,500 a month would qualify as affordable housing.

Clarke’s office declined to comment on the draft bill.

The legislation comes less than a year after passage of a similar bill, backed by Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, which imposed mandatory affordable housing provisions for new projects proposed in portions of their West and North Philadelphia districts. That bill created affordable housing requirements pegged to incomes at about half of what Clarke is proposing for for-sale units, but only in certain “gentrifying” zones.

Those bills attracted the ire of housing developers, who said insufficient incentives and the deeper affordability goals would make it too expensive to continue building in the covered areas.

Gary Jonas, president of the Building Industry Association (BIA), the chief lobbying group for residential developers, said his trade group still opposes inclusionary zoning but would welcome debate around broader affordability provisions as in Clarke’s draft proposal.

Clarke’s draft bill “is certainly aiming to help a broader group of people and learn from the other bills, which to date haven’t really worked,” he said. “The intent is to learn from the other bills and create something that will actually deliver affordable housing.”

Clarke has engaged in a years-long effort to aggressively rethink real estate development, both in his district and citywide. The latest draft follows previous bills seeking to limit residential density or give Council more influence over development in response to community groups that have pushed back against a wave of new construction.

In 2020, Clarke crafted legislation capping residences in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood at two to three stories and, later, a height limit for a large portion of Girard Avenue. Last year, he also pushed through a charter change aimed at overhauling the city’s zoning board to give Councilmembers and community groups more influence over development decisions. In 2021, he banned the use of a zoning bonus that would allow developers to build taller and denser buildings if they included affordable units.

More recently, groups in Yorktown — a historically designated, residential neighborhood developed for middle class Black families in the 1960s — protested a proposal to construct a block-long student housing complex on a parking lot in the neighborhood over affordability and aesthetic concerns.

On Thursday, at City Council’s first session after the summer recess, Clarke introduced three bills that capped building height at 38 feet in the entirety of Yorktown, as well as two other nearby areas.

But his interest in inclusionary zoning drew the most attention from interest groups and politicians.

Quiñones-Sánchez, who resigned earlier this month to run for mayor, praised Clarke’s efforts.

“It’s good to hear that the Council president has looked at our legislation and created a potential tool for his district,” she said.

However, the former Councilmember also praised Clarke’s proposal for including less generous affordability provisions than her own legislation — provisions she acknowledged developers had, so far, struggled to meet as interest rates rise and an ongoing supply chain crunch pushes up material costs.

“Some folks have said, ‘I can’t do 20% affordable units’ or ‘I can do 15%’, ” she said. “The cost of construction is higher now.”

Quiñones-Sánchez says that while she was still in office, her staff, including her preferred political successor, Quetcy Lozada, were involved in discussions with developers about revisiting some of the existing inclusionary zoning guidelines in the 7th District.

West Philadelphia’s Gauthier is holding firm. She plans to make only minor tweaks to inclusionary zoning regulations in her district.

“It’s only been two months: We need to give inclusionary zoning time and space to play out,” Gauthier said. “The private market isn’t generating affordable units in my district, and working-class people deserve to live in neighborhoods of choice.”

Jonas said the BIA is in negotiations to soften the existing inclusionary zoning ordinance in Kensington, although the lobbying group noted it has only made overtures to Gauthier at this point.

“To the other Council people’s credit, they are noticing that this is not working as they had hoped,” Jonas said. “They are going back to the drawing board and calling us to see how we can make those [laws] more viable.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.