Once Lombardo's revision is completed, a single column will provide all the relevant information. It is the first step of what Griffith hopes will be a total update of the city zoning code, the law that governs what can be built where. Virtually incomprehensible in sections, the code is also antiquated, having been first written in the 1930s. There has been no comprehensive update since 1962, leaving Philadelphia with an industrial-era zoning code while the city is trying to survive in the computer age, Griffith said. For example, railway passenger stations can be erected in any city residential area, but home offices with more than 250 square feet are banned.
Big developers say they can deal with the cost and aggravation of zoning board hearings.
Not so for others. I have to go and hire a zoning attorney, an engineer and architect. When Griffith contacted New York-based developers about investing here, she said, she found a reluctance to deal with what they considered the city's confusing bureaucratic maze. They said, 'We don't understand how you guys do things down there. . . . Licenses and Inspections' revision of the plumbing code would finally make the city's rules for plumbing work match the codes elsewhere nationwide.