Explore Philadelphia building permits, police crime data, and SP-INS and I-2 zoning in University City, home of Penn and Drexel.
Search this neighborhoodUniversity City is the West Philadelphia district around the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, with about 19,400 residents, many of them students, and a median home value near $719,000. Institutional (SP-INS) zoning covers about 27% of it, with medium industrial land at 15% and CMX-4 and CMX-5 commercial districts at 11% and 7%.
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Perelman Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, William H. Gray III 30th Street Station and the NASDAQ PHLX trading floor are inside the boundary. The Market-Frankford Line, the Subway-Surface trolleys and the Regional Rail lines at 30th Street Station serve it.
CivicScout shows Philadelphia Police Department reported incidents within a half-mile of any address in University City. Philadelphia publishes no neighborhood field for crime, so counts near the edge of University City include adjacent neighborhoods. Crash data is not available for Philadelphia.
View safety data →L&I issued 2,116 permits in University City from January 2024 through October 2026, 415 of them building permits (4 for new construction) and 6 for demolition; the rest are trade, zoning and site permits. Building permits are almost all for alterations and additions to existing buildings, with little new construction.
View permits →Major construction and high-impact permits — see what’s changing across the neighborhood.
View new construction →The largest zoning district in University City by area is SP-INS (institutional campuses), covering about 27% of the neighborhood, followed by I-2 (medium industrial land) at 15% and CMX-4 (commercial mixed-use) at 11%.
View zoning →The zoned public schools assigned by attendance boundary.
View schools →Location reports for University City addresses surface City of Philadelphia L&I building permits, code violations, 311 requests, nearby parks and the applicable Philadelphia Zoning Code district.
Search an address →Search an address in University City to see building permits, safety data, zoning details, and AI-powered neighborhood reports.
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