zoning Archives | Permit Philly

June 7, 2024June 11, 2024

Permit Expirations

We’ve heard a lot from our clients about permit expirations recently: Contractors, property owners, and even homeowners working on small renovation projects have found their construction and zoning permits out of date: marked “expired” and closed in the City of Philadelphia’s online portal. Everyone wants to know why their permits are expiring, and how to keep them alive.

Under this hail of cancellations, it might be surprising to learn that Philly’s permit expiration rules aren’t new: the City didn’t pass a new law, and Licenses and Inspections didn’t create a new regulation. What’s new is enforcement: L&I is tracking expiration dates closely, and actually closing overdue permits. In recent years, they were far more lenient because of the pandemic; and before that, they simply didn’t police expirations strictly: a permit could hang out in the system for years past its expiration date before anyone thought about closing the permit record.

That has all changed within the last year: Licenses and Inspections will close out expired permits almost immediately, which has introduced Philadelphia developers, contractors, and property owners to the rules that were technically always there, printed at the bottom of every issued permit.

You have questions about Philly permit expirations (I assume – you’re reading this, right?). We have the answers! Let’s dive in:

August 17, 2023June 6, 2024

Update on Philly Airbnb rules

Image of Philadelphia buildings at the top of an article about the Philly Airbnb rules in 2023

It’s been two years since Philly decided to create a license for Airbnb rentals, over a year since we first looked at Philly’s Airbnb rules in this space. The regulations for the Airbnb license are tricky, but with determination and focus we worked them out, then shared our findings with you in an easy-to-use guide – problem solved! Let’s look at the result of our work… Oh. Oh no.

Image of stormtroopers from Star Wars in formation used as a joke to represent Airbnb's enforcement of the City of Philadelphia's licensing rules

Live look at Airbnb’s enforcement action in Philadelphia

Okay, in the last month the City of Philadelphia has directed Airbnb and Vrbo to stop listing any stays (called short-term rentals) without a Philadelphia license. This is a problem, because in the last two years, I guess only 10-15% of Airbnb/Vrbo operators got a license? People! Come on!

Alright, alright: I understand it’s not that easy to get a short-term rental license in Philly. I also understand that not every property is zoned for short-term rental under City laws. So here’s a quick reminder of the steps to a Philadelphia Airbnb license:

March 18, 2020June 17, 2020

Philadelphia Permits and Coronavirus: The Basics

NOTE: This post was written on Tuesday, March 17th before Governor Tom Wolf shut down all construction in Pennsylvania on March 19th, and before construction was allowed to resume in May 2020. If you’re looking for the current state of the COVID-19 shutdown in Philly, as it relates to permits and construction, please see this article.

Hey Philly! Quite a week we’re having. On Friday, March 12th, the City’s permit center closed for the installation of a new software system. On Monday, March 16th, the City shut down all of its own non-essential functions and shuttered non-essential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The permit center in the Municipal Services Building and the district offices are closed to the public till at least the 27th. Despite all this, remote work and construction are both exempted from this order, [UPDATE: this order was issued before the statewide shutdown of construction sites] so we can still process Philadelphia permits during coronavirus!

January 3, 2019December 13, 2019

Top Five Things to Know About Philly Permits in 2019

Happy New Year! Permit Philly hopes everyone has recovered from the Mummer apocalypse and a month of eggnog. Since we have a brand-new year on our hands, I thought it would be a good idea to review what’s changed in Philadelphia permits over the last year, and explain how the changes affect you. So here are the top five things to know about Philly permits in 2019.

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November 19, 2018December 13, 2019

EZ Sign Permit

The City of Philadelphia can be a cruel mistress. When filing permits, it’s common to be told that the thing you’ve done 176 times needs to be laid out a different way the 177^th time – but then, on the 178^th time, to go back to the regular way. Sometimes, the way the application process works depends on which staffer is on lunch. This is life on the mean streets of 1401 JFK Boulevard.

But every now and again, the City smiles upon us all, and cuts away some of its own red tape. It has recently cut some tape around its troubled sign permits by creating what we in the permit game have previously only dreamt of: EZ sign permits.

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June 12, 2018December 13, 2019

Philadelphia Overlay Districts

In this space, we’ve explained what zoning districts are, and summarized the three main categories of zoning district: commercial, residential (single-family and multi-family), and industrial. We’ve even reviewed the basics of sign permitting. So you might think that our Philadelphia zoning guide is complete!

… you would be wrong.

Having a zoning code with detailed regulations for each parcel of land in the city might seem like the definition of a zoning code. But Philly’s zoning code doesn’t merely define types of parcel. It also sorts those parcels into geographic units. In certain areas of the city, it’s not enough to know that your property is considered RSA-5 (that is, residential single-family, attached). Your property might also fall under regulations for the Center City district – CTR – or the Central Delaware district – CDO. There are twenty of these in all, and they are called Overlay Districts.

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June 1, 2018February 19, 2021

Parking! Parking! Parking!

A parking meter in Queen Village, demonstrating parking rules in Philadelphia | Permit Philly

Let’s talk about parking rules in Philadelphia. You have to abide by them, even though you may not know what they are, and every living human in the city has a very angry opinion about them. Many RCOs rage against developments without parking. Residents want their curbside parking secured – keep the new people away from my spot! is the cry from people who moved to Northern Liberties only six years ago. As more people move to Philly, the tide of grumbling increases. Everyone is angry about parking.

And this anger reaches City Council pretty quickly. Right now, the Council is debating a new bill to require stricter parking rules in Philadelphia. [update: this was written in 2018, but Council is pretty much always debating parking bills.] Specifically, the bill would require more parking spaces to be constructed with each new development in the City. You might have seen some of Plan Philly’s outstanding reporting on this – take a look at this interview and this article for a good introduction.

Since the future of parking rules in Philadelphia are in some uncertainty, I want to quickly review the overall zoning rules for parking spots in the city, and talk about the ways in which the new bill might change them.

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May 8, 2018December 13, 2019

Philadelphia Zoning Guide: Industrial Zoning in Philadelphia

Industrial Zoning = Hipster Zoning

Welcome back to Permit Philly’s Philadelphia zoning guide! In this series, we’ve covered commercial zoning in Philadelphia, single-family residential zoning, multi-family residential zoning, and the age-old question, “Yo, can I turn my single-family house into a multi-family house?” But you’re not here for that conventional stuff: you’re into the darker, grittier, back catalogue of Philadelphia zoning. Artistic zoning. Hipster zoning. You want to know about old factories, and the best places to start a craft brewery, and where to get like just a super fly loft space for your innovative yet socially empowering start-up. You’re the kind of person who walks around Kensington, sees graffitied factory towers, and thinks, “I bet we could use this as a distillery but also a community center.” You want to learn about industrial zoning in Philadelphia.

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April 18, 2018December 13, 2019

Rezoning Property in Philadelphia

We interrupt Permit Philly’s zoning guide for an important message.

In this blog we’ve been slowly progressing through the Philadelphia Zoning Code’s classification of properties (if you’d like to see the series, click here). But today we’re not going to do that: today, we’re going to talk about rezoning property in Philadelphia. Specifically, we’re going to answer the question seemingly everyone has about multifamily buildings in Philadelphia:

Can I re-zone my single-family building as a multi-family building?

Nope! Next question.

Okay; it’s a little more complicated than that. Let’s take this step by step:

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April 13, 2018June 19, 2020

Philadelphia Zoning Guide: RSA Zoning

Welcome to Permit Philly’s RSA Zoning Guide!

If you’d like to see the other parts of this series, click here.

Hello again! After last week’s discussion of commercial zoning in Philly, it’s time for some lighter reading in our Philadelphia zoning guide: residential zoning! Specifically: RSA zoning districts!

I can feel your excitement.

But this stuff is important, because most of Philly is zoned residential. Most of the zoning or permitting cases I’ve worked on involve a homeowner asking, “Can I do with my house?”

You are more than welcome to contact Permit Philly to ask that or any other question. But in the meantime, here are some answers to your essential concerns about residential zoning – specifically, Philly’s RSA zoning classification.

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