Will Mark Squilla’s plan to protect Chinatown from the Sixers arena work?

When Councilman Mark Squilla introduced the legislation on Thursday to allow the 76ers to move forward with a basketball arena on East Market Street, he included a bill to create special zoning rules for neighboring Chinatown.

Its purpose is to prevent the displacement of small businesses and residents as large projects like the arena or “The Chinatown Seam,” that will cover part of the Vine Street Expressway north of the neighborhood, will go further and could lead to increased property values.

“People are going to tie it to the arena, but we should do it anyway,” Squilla said in an interview Thursday. “(It’s about) the future of keeping Chinatown as a solid cultural center for the city of Philadelphia, whether the arena gets the votes or not.”

The zoning overlap legislation proposed by Squilla on Thursday would cover the area between Vine and Filbert streets, from 9th to 13th streets.

It includes an inclusionary zoning ordinance that mandates affordable housing, restrictions on types of businesses and limits on the size of new storefronts to discourage chain restaurants from crowding out Chinatown’s traditional retail.

Besides the geographic area, the bill is vague. The precise language mandating how any of this would work has yet to be added to the bill as Squilla works with Chinatown organizations and the Planning Commission on the details. The exact language will be added to the bill through amendments in the coming weeks.

Squilla says the inclusionary zoning aspect of the bill would be more flexible than current rules covering areas of Kensington and West Philadelphia. That law requires apartment buildings of 10 or more units to reserve one-fifth of them for low-income residents.

But Squilla said he spoke with one of the architects of that law, former Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, and she cautioned him against setting affordability limits too low.

“I asked Maria and she said they haven’t built anything yet,” Squilla said. “We don’t want to ban affordable housing (accidentally), making it almost impossible for them to do projects. So we’re talking to Planning, how do we make an inclusionary zoning model that works?”

Other aspects of the bill include banning certain types of neighborhood businesses, mainly the smoke shops that have sprung up across the city and “personal service shops” to try to prevent more massage parlors from opening. (Bars were also considered a restricted use, but will not be included.)

Another provision of the bill would limit businesses to a maximum square footage unless they get permission from the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.

The precise boundary is still under discussion, and Squilla asked the Planning Commission to study the size of businesses in Chinatown. The idea is to make it difficult for a developer to buy multiple storefronts full of small businesses, close them and open a large operation in their place.

“You could buy three or four buildings together, and Chickie’s & Pete’s comes in … it’s not the small business feel of Chinatown,” Squilla said. “Somebody’s going to have to think, if I go in there and buy these three properties, I’m going to have to get a variance to put a bigger place.”

Squilla is also planning a “Cultural Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District” that would cover the same area as its overlay bill to address fears that if taxes go up as a result of property assessment increases, rents for small businesses they will grow too.

“The tax will be collected by the city and then refunded … to offset (the) rent increase,” Squilla said. “It’s almost like a rent abatement program to keep those small businesses there.”

Squilla says he consulted with experts in San Francisco, who created special zoning rules to protect his Chinatown. It also consulted with Chinatown groups.

“I’ve talked to several different organizations … I don’t want to say (who) because they’re going to get in trouble for talking to us,” Squilla said. “Just community stakeholders, I mean.”

Critics of the 76ers’ plan say such efforts won’t be enough to stop the drive. Impact studies paid for by the team and sponsored by the city, projected that Chinatown would be adversely affected by the arena.

“Our city leaders are kidding themselves if they really believe that the commercial center of Philadelphia’s Chinatown is going to be ‘saved’ by (this),” said Domenic Vitiello, a professor of urban planning at the University of Pennsylvania. “No such measure has preserved any American Chinatowns … when disruptive land uses such as arenas are built in or near them.”