PA: Reading advances transit-oriented development zoning changes

City Council passed a sweeping package of zoning and land development changes aimed at encouraging denser mixed-use development, reducing parking requirements and making downtown Reading more attractive for investment and redevelopment.

The ordinances approved Tuesday at council’s regular meeting establish a new transit-oriented development overlay district, amend the city’s subdivision and land development ordinance and rewrite off-street parking and loading requirements.

The changes are part of a broader effort by the administration to modernize zoning regulations and better align development policies with public transportation, walkability and adaptive reuse projects in the city core.

During the meeting, Managing Director Jack Gombach said the changes are intended to create an environment more conducive to economic development and help attract developers to Reading.

“Now we have simpler code zoning, we have the CRIZ ( City Revitalization Improvement Zone), and now as we explore federal opportunity zones, this is a community that really shouldn’t be overlooked in terms of investment,” Gombach told council.

Administrators said the changes are designed to reduce barriers to redevelopment and encourage more housing and commercial activity in walkable areas near transportation corridors.

During public comment, the Rev. Evelyn Morrison voiced support for integrating transportation, residential development, businesses and leisure uses in the downtown core while urging the city to preserve affordability and diversity as redevelopment occurs.

Morrison said she was hoping it also will be a multicultural, very diverse redevelopment effort, expressing concern that only higher-income residents might eventually be able to afford new downtown housing.

Morrison cautioned against concentrating too much redevelopment activity among only a few developers and encouraged the city to continue attracting a broader range of investors and businesses.

Nightclubs, taverns

In other business, council approved a zoning amendment allowing taverns and nightclubs by right in certain downtown commercial and manufacturing-commercial districts as part of adaptive reuse projects, rather than requiring conditional use approval.

Councilman Raymond Baker said the city must balance entertainment opportunities with enforcement and public safety concerns.

“We have to find a common balance of providing entertainment for people, quality entertainment for people to have someplace to go, but we also have to enforce the laws,” Baker said.

Baker said properly regulated entertainment venues could help reduce the growth of illegal after-hours establishments that city officials have previously linked to violence and nuisance complaints.

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