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City Council Targets Parking Lot Troublemakers with New Liability Law Taking Hold Across Philly Streets

Official:Amending Chapter 9-4400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled “Responsible Business Operations,” to expand property owner liability, under certain terms and conditions.

Sponsor: Councilmember Henon

Introduced: September 30, 2021

: Committee on Licenses and Inspections

business housing public safety

No one voted on this bill

This bill was introduced in the 2020–2023 Council term and when that term ran out. The public record shows no committee vote and no floor vote at any stage, so no member of Council ever went on record for or against it.

That is not unusual here. Of the 8,465 bills introduced between 2000 and 2025, 1,624 lapsed without a single recorded vote. Ninety percent of bills that became law carry a roll call. Three percent of lapsed bills do. How this works.

Plain-Language Summary

This bill makes property owners responsible for nuisance behavior on their parking lots shared with multiple businesses.

What This Bill Does

AI-written. Every figure is checked against the bill text.

Property owners of parking lots shared with multiple businesses are now liable for nuisance behavior occurring on their property, even if they were not directly responsible for the behavior.
A property owner will not be subject to penalties for a single incident of nuisance behavior, unless they were personally responsible for the behavior.
If a parking lot shared by multiple businesses is a chronic nuisance, the property owner will be subject to the remedies set forth in the relevant chapter of The Philadelphia Code. 4.