The Stop Demolishing Philly Coalition urges Philadelphia City Council to vote NO on Bill 251030.

At a moment when Philadelphia promotes itself as a World Heritage City and prepares to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, we must protect the historic resources that define our city. Bill 251030, introduced by Councilman Mark Squilla this past November, makes it easier for profit-driven developers to destroy our city’s historic fabric and change neighborhoods without community input.

This legislation, if passed, will:

• Create procedural loopholes, including a pre-approval window and automatic permit approvals which make it easier to bypass the historic designation process.
• Weaken protections for sites that have already been designated, including easier pathways to de-listing. (Currently, only 5% of the city has historic designation protections.)
• Politicize historic preservation activities by giving the Commission the right to determine that “other policy factors” “outweigh” the benefits of historic preservation.
• Remove landscape architecture as a criterion for designation.
• Result in the loss of archaeological sites important to understanding our history and pre-history by unnecessarily raising the standard for Historic Register designation.
• Remove transparency and opportunities for community input.

Preserving Philadelphia's historic built environment helps maintain affordable housing, attract investment, sustain housing density, and encourage population growth, per a 2025 economic impact study from PlaceEconomics. So why has Councilman Mark Squilla, a member of the city’s 2017–19 Historic Preservation Task Force, introduced legislation that guts the protections of Philadelphia’s Preservation Ordinance instead of advancing the very recommendations the Task Force put forward?

We call on City Council to do the following:

• Reject Bill 251030. As written, this legislation is not worth revising and should be outright rejected by Council.
• Advance legislation that strengthens community-driven preservation and makes preservation work better for everyone, especially middle- and working-class homeowners who care about protecting their neighborhood’s cultural heritage. For example, flexible (tiered) historic districts, recommended by the Historic Preservation Task Force in 2019, protect neighborhoods equitably while keeping preservation practical for homeowners.
• Invite preservation advocates to the table. Create a community advisory committee for future legislation, rather than continued closed-door meetings. 
• Explain what ends are achieved by this legislation to revise the Preservation Ordinance, and why the Task Force recommendations are not being used as a roadmap. 

Signed,

The Stop Demolishing Philly Coalition

American Society of Landscape Architects, Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter • Association for Preservation Technology/Delaware Valley Chapter •  Brewerytown Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition • Cathedral Park Community Development Corporation • Community Development Board of East Parkside • The Dox Thrash Project • Frankford & Kensington Development Council • Keeping Society of Philadelphia • Neighbors Across Market • Neighborhood Alliance for Washington Square West • Philadelphia Archaeological Forum • Preservation Pennsylvania • Powelton Village Civic Association • RePoint Philadelphia • SoLo/Germantown Civic Association • University City Historical Society

This coalition is growing. If your organization would like to sign on as a coalition member, please reach out to stopdemolishingphilly@gmail.com.

Further reading:

Legislation & Analysis

• Text of Bill 251030, introduced 11/20/25. 
• “Analysis of Proposed Amendment to Philadelphia’s Historic Preservation Ordinance,” Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, 11/24/2025.
• “Demolition by Amendment: Why Council Must Vote NO on Bill 251030,” RePoint Philadelphia, 12/4/2025. 
• Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia letter to Philadelphia City Planning Commission, 12/4/2025.

Media Coverage

• “Good government fix or a demolition derby? Historic preservation bill is provoking debate in Philly,” Jake Blumgart, Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/2/2025.
• “Historic preservation bill is getting a rewrite after outcry,” Meir Rinde, Billy Penn/WHYY, 12/24/2025. 
• “Preservationists Worry of a Demolition Loophole in Squilla Bill,” Kyle Bagenstose, Hidden City Philadelphia, 12/31/2025.

Historic Preservation in Philadelphia

• “Growing Through Preservation: The Economic Impact of Historic Preservation in Philadelphia,” PlaceEconomics, 9/2025.
• Final Report of the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Task Force, 3/2019.
• Summary of Philadelphia’s Historic Preservation Ordinance, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 3/2018.

Cover photograph taken by Bradley Maule.