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Zoning
Zoning
March 31
By Alan Jaffe
For PlanPhilly
Over the last 18 months, the city has had a case of “civic engagement” fever. The symptoms are a rash of Sharpie-wielding facilitators, an outbreak of breakout groups, a yen for cold cuts and cookies, and contagious debates on the future of Philadelphia.
• PennPraxis asked communities to rethink what can be done on the Central Delaware Riverfront.
• Great Expectations sessions were organized by The Inquirer to figure out how to make us the next great city.
• Multiple city agencies and organizations led Green Plan discussions on how to improve the environment.
• The City Planning Commission set up a circuit of Imagine Philadelphia roundtables as the first phase in drawing up a new comprehensive plan.
And there are more requests for your presence coming down the pike. Anyone with a mind to share an opinion has had a choice of soapboxes and a variety of willing ears.
But what is behind the recent spate of invitations and concern for public input? Just how much longer will people show up before they sink into civic engagement fatigue? And why does the city seem so damned democratic lately?
Athens, Rome, Philadelphia
Coordinating the civic engagement programs for both Great Expectations and PennPraxis has been Harris Sokoloff, director of the Center for School Study Councils at the University of Pennsylvania. Sokoloff traces the framework of that work to the senates of Athens and Rome.
“In every decision-making process we have where people come together in some sort of equal terms, we use some form of deliberative model,” going back to those early republics. “The tools we’re using are different; the ideas are still the same. It’s still a matter of: people get together, find a way to identify the issues, what the pros and cons are, the different ways of understanding the issues and the different forms of action, and use that in the decision-making.”
As in ancient Rome, “power politics” always play a part, Sokoloff adds, but there are ways to keep the process transparent and the public an important partner.
Beverly A. Harper traces her involvement in modern civic engagement to the early 1970s. Harper is founder, president and CEO of Portfolio Associates Inc., the agency that managed the series of Imagine Philadelphia meetings held in neighborhoods around the city over the winter.
Back in the ‘70s, Portfolio Associates conducted a study for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that examined how and where citizens could become involved in the transportation planning process. The agency surveyed the 50 state transportation departments around the country, then took an in-depth look at four departments’ experiences with civic engagement.
“We found that in the Boston area there was almost a billion dollars in projects that had been stopped because of public involvement,” which occurred at “a very late stage in the projects,” Harper said.
“Involving the public early in a realistic way – and realistic means letting them know all of the different factors that will go into the decision-making – does help a project have a smoother development,” she said. “If you involve them early enough and know the kinds of issues and concerns that they have, you can do things to mitigate some of those concerns.”
Civic involvement programs continued into the 1980s, according to Harper, then trailed off for the next 10 years or so. The resurgence in Philadelphia is the result of several factors, she said.
“I think that part of it has to do with federal guidelines related to the National Environmental Policy Act,” the 1970 measure that required federal agencies to prepare Environmental Impact Statements before taking action and then sharing the information with the public. “Many government-funded projects and public agencies use those guidelines to identify the projects where they need engagement,” Harper explained.
Another reason for greater public involvement is governments’ limited funds and resources, she continued. “So one of the ways to help identify what should be done, and how it should be done, is by engaging citizens.”
The third factor is increased sophistication on the part of the citizenry, Harper believes. “Thanks in part to the Internet, they can find out what’s going on. When there are things they don’t like, they know how to get involved and who they should be contacting.”
 Sokoloff’s plunge into the deep end of civic engagement came in 1995, in partnership with Inquirer editorial page editor Chris Satullo. Each year Sokoloff and Satullo took on a new topic that included civic engagement initiatives, from national to local issues, on everything from health care to the needs of a particular school building.
Over the past year, their collaboration on Great Expectations was part of a larger effort, the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, which also included the Delaware waterfront project led by PennPraxis executive director Harris Steinberg. Sokoloff, Satullo and Steinberg had worked together four years before on the attempt to find a developer and the right development for Penn’s Landing.
Sokoloff said the civic trend is due to the realization on the part of government leaders and agencies that “those who must be involved in supporting or solving a problem or challenge ought to be involved in naming and framing the problem, and in helping to find a solution.”
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, for example, recently acknowledged that he can’t do anything without the support and involvement of other people, Sokoloff said.
“The leaders can no longer say ‘do this’ and it happens,” he said. “Issues are too complex; the solutions are too complex. Everything requires adaptation. …It requires a different kind of citizen involvement and engagement, and that’s why you’re seeing all these community forums.”
The Right Model
There are many models for conducting civic engagement, Sokoloff said, and he doesn’t claim to have the best one, “though we try to make it better and are constantly revising it.”
In too many cases, the process takes the form of an expert- or advocate-driven discussion. “An expert gets up in the front of the room, makes a presentation, and has a question-and-answer period. Or there may be a group of people who have developed an agenda and all they want to happen is for all the people to bless the agenda,” he said.
Liz Gabor, a real estate manager at the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, was a participant in two civic engagement efforts in recent months. The Imagine Philadelphia session, she said, was an “organic” interchange in which neighbors were asked to brainstorm solutions to city problems. “People were imaginative and came up with very good ideas.”
But Gabor said her experience in the Great Expectations did not seem as productive. “We were told, ‘read this report and comment on it.’ It was too guided.”
Another participant in both the Imagine Philadelphia and Great Expectations sessions found them equally constructive. “I heard similar comments at each meeting and a consistency in what people were saying,” said Jo Ann Desper, a senior consultant for a healthcare services company. “They were both good, open forums.”
Public involvement means more than meetings at which participants offer opinions and possible solutions, Harper said. “That is one tool that you can use to get reaction and input. There are lots of others that can be used,” including surveys, focus groups, and online interaction.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is in the midst of a public outreach effort for its long-range strategy, entitled “Connections – The Regional Plan for a Sustainable Future.” An online survey is underway through the end of March that will help refine planning in the areas of transportation, land use, economic development and the environment. The survey will be followed by planning exercises, focus groups and public workshops.
The public meetings have dimensions beyond surveys, Harper said. They serve as an educational tool that shows participants how the next person thinks, and they provide “directly and subtly an empathy and understanding of the position that the agency or organization has in trying to come up with a plan, knowing that everyone is not going to be of one mind.”
Those differing views are a vital component of civic engagement. A diverse group of participants is a primary goal in calling the meetings. “I was very pleased with the diversity of the Imagine Philadelphia sessions,” Harper said. “It was diverse in lots of different ways. The meeting in West Philadelphia had lots of young people, and I thought that was terrific. In the Northeast, there were lots of Eastern Europeans, but they were from different ethnic groups. I’m very happy with the cross-section we achieved” over the course of the nine citywide meetings.
Sokoloff also seeks a diverse group of participants. “The idea is always to make the group as inclusive as possible – by gender, ethnicity, race, and different levels of expertise,” he said. “The more diversity, the richer the conversation.”
While different viewpoints are sought, the civic engagement sessions organized for Penn’s design department or the meetings for the City Planning Commission did not specifically invite developers to the table.
But they would not have been turned away, either. “For Imagine Philadelphia, we wanted to hear from ordinary citizens,” Harper said. Developers may have attended, but they would have probably been there in their roles as residents. “The only people we explicitly invited by letter were elected officials.”
In the Central Delaware engagement process, separate meetings were held with developers to gather their input and expertise. “That’s where you say, ‘We’re going to have a closed session with developers.’ And when you do that, you let people know you’re doing it,” Sokoloff said. “It is a matter of transparency, but I like to think beyond transparency to co-production – the idea of experts working with citizens.”
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Even an engaged citizen may need to rest his voice occasionally. To prevent civic exhaustion, Harper suggests more collaboration among agencies. Portfolio Associates is currently undertaking public research into two projects – one looking at ways to ease traffic congestion on the west side of the Ben Franklin Bridge and the other exploring an extension of the PATCO line along the waterfront – with a combined questionnaire and meetings that will ask stakeholders about both issues.
“This is to recognize that people’s time is valuable. I think we need to do a little bit more of that,” she said. “So that you’re not asking the public to come out too many times.”
A more serious problem arises when organizers of civic engagement create “unrealistic expectations about how much say people will have in a project. I think it’s something you have to repeat early and often – that this is just one of the factors you use in the decision-making process,” Harper emphasized. “I think it is incumbent upon organizations who are managing this process to be truthful with people about what their involvement is going to mean.”
There must be an implementation mechanism in place, she said, to show participants their input had a result. If there is no implementation, “I think that hurts other efforts,” she said.
The new Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Charles Ramsey, conducted his own form of civic engagement, a round of six town hall meetings in the six police districts, when he took office earlier this year.
“The commissioner had said he wanted to get the public’s input for developing a plan for Philadelphia,” explained Lt. Frank Vanore, of the police public affairs department. “He knows about policing, but he didn’t know Philadelphia. He was following a format he did in Washington, D.C., where he held town hall meetings to create his strategy.”
According to Vanore, Commissioner Ramsey took notes at every meeting in Philadelphia and shaped a plan to fit each neighborhood. The result? “Some of those things the people said went verbatim right into his plans.” The commissioner’s Crime Fighting Strategy was then posted on the police department’s website for town hall participants to read.
Every municipal or regional issue does not require public involvement sessions, Sokoloff said. “You don’t want to do it with every decision. … You’d get stuck. You don’t have time to do it all. There’s so much that has to be done quickly.”
The problems that require the most “citizen adaptation” are those that call for citizen participation, he said.
But keeping the public engaged through rounds of meetings is “a real challenge,” Sokoloff said. “It’s a possibility that they will get fatigued. I think it’s less likely to happen if what comes out of the engagement – the action steps, policies, proposals, whatever – is responsive to the citizen voice.
“The minute you engage the public in this kind of conversation, you have a responsibility to tell them what you heard, what you did with what you heard, and how what you heard impacted your decisions,” he said.
“People need to know their time is being well spent. They need to know they’re making a difference.”
Desper, the healthcare services consultant, hasn’t tired of civic engagement after participating in two projects. “The more of these the better, as far as I’m concerned. They are a wonderful example of our government working the way it should. They are opening up opportunities for what citizens want at a very basic level.”
Contact the reporter at alanjaffe@mac.com
Foxwoods aeriel view Jan. 29
Rendell calls council stance gutless
Casino-Free Philadelphia challenges the governor
By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly Philadelphia still faces a lawsuit that was filed after its Commerce Department gave SugarHouse Casino a permit to build on riverbed land - even though the city revoked that permit last week.
"We really think it's a moot point since we revoked the licenses," said Maura Kennedy, a spokesperson for Mayor Michael Nutter. The city filed a brief with the Supreme Court stating as much shortly after Nutter announced the permit decision Friday.
But state Rep. Mike O'Brien - one of the cadre of local legislators who filed the lawsuit in late December, said the case is not about whether a permit exists, but who has the right to grant one. The legislature does, he says, and the city does not. The city disagrees.
When making last Friday’s announcement, Nutter criticized the administration of former mayor John Street for its handling of the permit, saying errors were made and the decision was rushed. But Nutter's legal staff agrees with Street's -- and SugarHouse's -- that a 1907 law gives the city the right to make the call on riparian rights.
"The city does have a right to decide, it was just done improperly," Kennedy said. 
Sugarhouse aeriel view
Historically, the right to build a project the size of SugarHouse on riverbed land - also called riparian or submerged lands - has been granted through an act of the state legislature. But tradition holds that only a legislator representing the district where a project is located introduces that legislation. None of the local contingent were anywhere close to doing that for SugarHouse when the casino's attorneys found the 1907 law and applied to the City Commerce Department.
The legislators and their legal experts maintain that newer laws - including the Administrative Code of 1929 and the Dam Safety and Encroachment Act of 1978 - override the old law.
"The initial cause for action no longer stands, (but) the overriding principle of law does," O'Brien said, and thus the lawsuit will go on.
In another twist, SugarHouse officials are now using the lawsuit filed when their revoked riparian rights license was issued to argue that the license should stand.
"We have been advised by our legal team that the City’s action to rescind our submerged lands license is contrary to law given the pending litigation surrounding that license," said Greg Carlin, chief executive officer of HSP Gaming, the company developing the casino.
Nutter anticipates the Commerce Department will take a second look at whether SugarHouse should have a license to build on riverbed lands. SugarHouse has 30 days to appeal the revocation, and that appeal would launch the process, Kennedy said. She said there would be at least one public hearing.
SugarHouse executives don't think they should have to appeal the revocation, because they believe the permit should stand. They filed a brief with the Supreme Court detailing these arguments.
Spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker said SugarHouse has not yet decided whether it will file an appeal, anyway. "We're exploring all of our options," she said.
Philadelphia's other proposed riverfront casino, Foxwoods, may also find itself in a riparian rights battle - even though officials say they do not need to build on the submerged lands.
 Foxwood's changed its original proposal by pulling in a promenade, and so, officials have said, they no longer need riparian rights.
But some state and local leaders disagree.
In fact, the very day that Nutter announced SugarHouse's submerged lands license had been revoked, City Councilman Frank DiCicco introduced city legislation that would give Foxwoods the zoning it needs to build. But DiCicco's proposal contains several conditions that Foxwoods must meet first, and one of them is that they are granted riparian rights, via the state legislature.
DiCicco's spokesman Brian Abernathy said last week that Foxwoods first proposal, which required riparian rights, was a better design and the one that was approved by the Gaming Control Board.
Abernathy predicted that Foxwoods wouldn't like the conditions on the proposal, which must make it through committee and then be read twice more before city council before it could be adopted. He was right.
Foxwoods spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said in written statements that the riparian rights condition and the others are unlike anything that council has demanded of a zoning applicant up to this point, and therefore unlikely to hold up in court.
"We believe very strongly in our legal position, and we believe the City will have a difficult time in abandoning the position it has consistently taken in this case and in its last two filings with the Supreme Court," she said.
It was the Supreme Court that gave SugarHouse the zoning it needed, saying that the city had intentionally stalled for too long. That ruling prompted DiCicco to submit the zoning proposal, in hopes that the city would retain some power in the matter. The zoning is necessary before Foxwoods can move very far, because the zoning permit is a prerequisite of others. Foxwoods has not received any of the permits it needs yet, but "we're working with (the state's Department of Environmental Protection) to determine the appropriate permits for our project," said Garrity. Foxwoods is also working with the city's water and sewer departments, she said.
O'Brien believes even Foxwoods' amended plan actually requires riparian rights. Regardless of what happens with City Council, if Foxwoods begins construction without securing riparian rights, O'Brien pledged to seek a restraining order and file a lawsuit "as soon as they put a spade in the ground."
Contact the reporter at kelliespatrick@gmail.com
Nov. 14
By Alan Jaffe
For PlanPhilly
A new vision for the Central Delaware waterfront, forged over 13 months in more than 200 collaborative, occasionally contentious civic meetings, was formally introduced last night with dramatic flare and some compromise on the most disputed elements.
Inquirer coverage
Metro coverage
Daily Pennsylvanian
The proposal to bury a section of I-95 was softened by less drastic options. The dense riverfront street grid was proposed with a nod toward developers’ concerns. And the casinos, the hottest issue, were plotted on the plan – and then dissolved on an alternative map.
The audience of about 1,200 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center cheered the proposals and offered a standing ovation to the concluding video fly-over, a time-warp that transformed the current waterfront into an active, thriving scene of green spaces and well-balanced development and communities.
Public reaction
Approval for the plan, which was coordinated by PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the design department at the University of Pennsylvania, came from nearly every front. Mayor Street lauded the process for engaging the river ward communities and taking on a challenge that has eluded the city for decades. Michael DiBerardinis, secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, called the Civic Vision “meaningful and important.” Riverfront developer Bart Blatstein said the plan is “a great start.”
Dissenting voices in the audience condemned any allowance for casinos, intermittently disrupting the presentation by PennPraxis executive director Harris Steinberg, who has guided the Civic Vision through several combative meetings. Outside the Convention Center, a six-foot skunk urged people to wear clothespins to show their displeasure with the Foxwoods and SugarHouse sites.
A panel of government, business and community leaders were invited to respond to the presentation, and they lent their support to most aspects of the plan. But there was a clash over the issue of funding a major I-95 reconfiguration. Rina Cutler, deputy secretary at PennDot, warned that an estimated $10 billion needed to depress the interstate at Penn’s Landing would be hard, if not impossible, to raise. Mayor Street disagreed. Initial response to large projects is always negative, Street said, but “there is plenty of money” if the public says “this is the priority.”
Overall, the evening was upbeat, congratulatory, and very hopeful.
Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose constituents’ fears of waterfront gaming sparked his suggestion that the city create a master plan for the Central Delaware, said the unveiling last night was “the highlight of my political career.” He thanked the William Penn Foundation for providing more than $1.6 million for this first phase of the waterfront process. He also credited Street for signing the executive order in October 2006 that charged PennPraxis with leading the effort.
The mayor noted that “plan after plan failed” to make the best use of the 13-acre parcel on the Center City riverfront. “The thing that should distinguish this report from other studies is you,” he told the audience last night. “We never had this kind of community engagement” in the process before, and “what will deter it from sitting on a shelf is you not letting it happen.”
With just over 50 days left in his term, he urged that the plan more forward with the formation of an organization that will take up the banner and “ensure that this work has not been done in vain.”
Steinberg then took the podium to present the culmination of his team’s year-long labor in an eloquent, 30-minute sales pitch. With archival, contemporary and conceptual images of the waterfront beamed on two screens flanking him, and on screens in an adjoining hall for the overflow crowd, Steinberg emphasized the historical and regional context of the Central Delaware -- from William Penn’s arrival, through the riverfront’s industrial dominance, through the traffic-jammed state of things today. The initial question was, “how do we create a framework for growth?” he said.
PennPraxis conferred with elected officials and every civic group with a stake in the waterfront so that the “pinheads from Penn,” as he heard one resident describe his team, “would not impose their image on the waterfront.”
The planners relied on the values expressed by residents in that series of meetings, and on the best practices for riverfront redevelopment accomplished in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Hoboken. “Man, if we can’t beat Hoboken,” Steinberg laughed.
What the Philadelphia team came up with was three frameworks based on movement, open space, and development.
Movement refers to connections across and beneath I-95 to the river, a street grid that replicates the feeling of Center City life on the waterfront, and a north-south urban boulevard.
A reborn Delaware Boulevard, the “spine” of the riverfront, would mean keeping a six-lane avenue for now, but eventually “skinnying up” the current road to allow for a light-rail or other mass transit line down the center.
The street grid would recall the 17th-century template designed by William Penn “which has guided our identity,” Steinberg said. “We need to think about extending that to the river,” not only to disperse traffic, but also as “the connective tissue” that links land parcels.
The audience applauded the Civic Plan’s suggestion that Septa and Patco lines be linked on a reinvented waterfront. Water ferries and water taxis are also part of the plan, as opposed to a Camden-Philadelphia tram that links the two cities.
Turning to the high-profile proposal of burying I-95 to reclaim the Penn’s Landing area, Steinberg offered a conciliatory tone. “Is there a way to sink it? I don’t know. There is lots more study to be done. It is something that the plan doesn’t live or die on.
“But if we don’t start thinking about it,” he said, “Philadelphia will miss the boat to capitalize on that potential.”
The open space framework in the Civic Vision foresees “a great lawn” at Penn’s Landing, “a great democratizing element of the city.”
Frankford Avenue and Spring Garden Streets were presented in artist’s drawings transformed into pedestrian-friendly green streets of trees, blooming medians, and bike lanes. The string of parks and open spaces along the Delaware would “do work,” Steinberg said, filtering stormwater and pollutants, and creating wetlands, wildlife habitats, tidal gardens, and a healthier city and river.
Land development along the water, and specifically how casinos fit into the plan, has been “the most contentious part of this project,” Steinberg said,
“Not an option!” an audience member shouted.
“Yes it is!” responded another.
“Bull----!” answered the first.
Acknowledging the debate, PennPraxis provided two options for those sites on the waterfront plan, with and without the casinos. But Steinberg said the issue is “not about what is there. It’s about how the buildings relate to each other” and surrounding streets, and whether they allow access to the waterfront.
Other development issues should be addressed through zoning code reforms, according to the Civic Vision. The street grid plan must be codified and buildings must “meet the street line,” with retail, commercial and “life-affirming” uses, Steinberg said. Tall buildings should be staggered along the landscape to ensure “everyone has light and air and views of the river,” he also said.
There is a place on the river for big-box development, too, so long as it is “done more gracefully,” Steinberg said.
The presentation ended with the video, reminiscent of the 1964 World’s Fair ride that looked ahead to the city of the future. The audience was remarkably silent as it was given a glimpse of what Philadelphia could become 50 years from now. When it ended, they rose and applauded the vision.
In an official response to the plan, DCNR secretary DiBerardinis, a 30-year resident of Fishtown, said the unveiling of the plan was an “important event for Philadelphia.”
A century ago, he said, Pennsylvania stood at a similar crossroads, with its forests decimated and streams polluted by the Industrial Revolution. But some leaders had a vision for the commonwealth that helped save its ecosystems. “We are in a similar moment in this time,” he said. Conservation and sustainable communities will become policy imperatives, and “cities that imagine a waterfront like this are the ones that will succeed,” DiBerardinis said.
“The plan is right. The economy of the future will be built around efficiency and sustainability,” he said.
To make it happen, the city must build on the collaboration of the community, DiBerardinis continued. There must be consistent city leadership to shepherd the plan forward, and it must move from a vision to a detailed planning process. Strategic investment must be made and leveraged through the local, state and federal governments, he said. And “early victories” should be implemented “so people can see the reality.”
Inquirer columnist Chris Satullo moderated the panel discussion that ended the evening, posing his own questions and those from the audience.
Blatstein, of Tower Investments, said “planning is not the enemy. The enemy is lack of planning.” He said the Civic Vision has been a “marriage of planners, developers and communities.”
Blatstein also said there should be no gated communities along the waterfront and there should be open and free access to the river.
Cutler, of PennDot, who was among the supervisors on Boston’s Big Dig project, said Philadelphia should not become too focused on a large I-95 reconstruction. “If we spend years debating if it is possible to bury 95, we will miss the opportunity to rethink what else exists there.”
A better choice, she said, might be improved public transit on the waterfront. Because of funding limitations, “we may have to make those choices,” she said.
Mayor Street said an ambitious 95 redo can happen. “It will not happen unless we say this is the kind of investment we want from the local and federal government,” he said. That will require the support of surrounding counties, who must also see that a revived city waterfront will benefit their residents. “The biggest deterrent is perceived regional differences,” he said.
Steinberg said the next steps in the process will be “early action projects,” such as the blazing of a bike trail from the Pier 70 neighborhood to Penn’s Landing, the restoration of riverfront wetlands, and the release of an implementation guide in the spring.
“This is the very beginning,” he said. Alan Jaffe is a former Philadelphia Inquirer editor. He can be contacted at alanjaffe@mac.com
May 14 By Matt Blanchard
For PlanPhilly
A sneak peak at GreenPlan Philadelphia reveals that the plan is extremely green indeed. In the works since 2006, this parks and recreation planning effort won’t deliver a final report until the fall. But on Wednesday, GreenPlan director Robert Allen offered some early highlights that, if carried out, would mean a block-by-block transformation for much of our city in the next twenty years.
GreenPlan school yard "before and after" That other sort of green – funding – remains an open question. But few doubt Philadelphia needs such a plan. While the city has plenty of green space, it’s concentrated in Fairmount Park and Germantown, which enjoys 34% tree coverage. Elsewhere, in places like South Philadelphia and Kensington, the lightly treed streets will be sweltering again this summer with under 2% coverage. To correct this, improve real estate values and hopefully reduce energy costs and crime, GreenPlan’s 2028 goals are breathtaking: • Plant 995,000 new trees to get Philadelphia’s tree cover up to 30%, double its current coverage, the lowest of any major east coast city. Baltimore already enjoys a 29% cover and is headed for 40%. New York is aiming for 26% in the next ten years.
• Create 4,000 acres of new parkland (a 33% increase) primarily in underserved areas.
• Green 100 school yards (37% of total)
• Green 50% of all city streets (over 1300 miles) with a tree every 30 to 40 feet.
• Ensure all Philadelphians are within walking distance (1/2 mile) of a trail. No green for trees As with so many other measures of municipal health, Philadelphia’s tree planting picture is grim: Portland, Oregon, for example, is one third the size of Philadelphia yet budgets $14 million for tree planting each year. We spend just $300,000. In an era where “green” solutions are being found for everything from cars to carpets -- and where “green roofs” and “green buffers” are reducing energy use and air pollution – Philadelphia streets are actually experiencing a net loss of trees. “The city spends 4 to 5 times more on tree removal than they do on planting,” says GreenPlan’s Allen. “That’ll give you some sense of the tree situation in Philadelphia.” Allen says his team ran a modeling test on one square mile of South Philadelphia. Simply by raising the area’s shade cover to 30% -- his citywide goal – Allen claimed residents would save $1.1 million in energy costs each year. The effect on property values, he said, could be even more dramatic: The total value of all real estate in the study could rise by $121 million. Philly vs. Trees It all sounds like a win-win. Who doesn’t like trees? Yet observers were quick to point out that trees don’t come cheap. Once a tree goes in the ground, some human must care for it with occasional watering, pruning and the sweeping up of leaves. GreenPlan appears to rely on a hefty helping of community volunteerism, which some said won’t work. “We can’t even get the property owners to maintain their trees,” said Marion Johnson, legislative aide to Councilwoman Marian Tasco. “Community groups would like to do it, but they don’t have the wherewithal.” Developer John Westrum raised a slightly more bizarre obstacle to greening. For his recent 230-unit town house development in South Philly, Westrum planted more than 500 trees – only to see dozens ripped out by residents. “We put them in the ground, and they pulled them out and sold them!,” Westrum said. “These were $300 trees. But only about a third are still in there because [residents] wanted their back yards for something else.”
Contact the reporter at blanchard.matt@gmail.com
Previous PlanPhilly coverage of the green infrastructure Mayor Nutter addressed the Zoning Code Commission on Wednesday, stressing again his campaign pledge to make zoning and planning a top priority. “The fact that only about six people in the city understand the zoning code is a problem,” Nutter said. “We cannot continue to operate in the dark ages with this code.” 
He also vowed again to restore the Philadelphia Planning Commission to its 1950s reputation as a model for planning agencies across the nation. The visit was mostly a social call: Nutter shook almost every hand in the room before speaking. But the mayor also cracked the whip just a bit, calling for the group to hire an executive director. Despite its daunting task, the ZCC still has no support staff. Nutter said he wants to review candidates soon and make a hire by the end of this month. In other Administration news: Nutter appointed Mark Alan Hughes Director of Sustainabilty. See news release.
May 6
By Steven B. Ujifusa
For PlanPhilly
The steering committee of the Design Advocacy Group has announced that Joanne Aitken, an associate at KieranTimberlake Associates, will replace Alan Greenberger as Chair. Greenberger is stepping down from the DAG role in order to take a new position as Vice Chairman of the City Planning Commission.
During a May 5 interview, Aitken explained how over the past six years, DAG has evolved from being a reactionary to a pro-active organization.
“When everyone first got together for DAG meetings, it was with a sense of frustration,” she said. “Community associations, government, and developers were all getting their say in building projects, but everyone was ignoring the design aspect.”
Aitken noted how unproductive it was for the Philadelphia design community to be left out of the development decision-making process. “Design needs a place at the table. As a design professional, if you find out what’s happening late, then no matter what you say, it can be perceived as obstructionist.”
Aitken feels that one of DAG’s great strengths today is how it leverages the tremendous talent of its individual members into collective action. “We no longer have to tell the public: ‘wake up people!’ When we started meeting, we got a lot of people together in the room who were intelligent and experienced. We could come up with amazing ideas. Our individual wishes can become a collective intelligence, and this is the big thing that DAG can contribute.”
Looking forward, Aitken wants to further increase the participation of DAG’s growing membership. “There is an active core that show up to the meetings each month,” she said, “but we have about 1,000 members on our email list. We need to figure out how to involve them more.”
Greenberger, the outgoing DAG chair, is extremely enthusiastic about his successor. “Joanne has had leadership roles in the community as president of AIA (American Institute of Architects) and as a civic activist. We thought she would offer good, steady, and visionary leadership to DAG.”
Bill Becker, a member of the DAG Steering Committee, echoed Greenberger’s sentiments. “Joanne is an outstanding professional who has very active participant in DAG’s affairs. She also writes beautifully. I think she will be a fantastic leader. She’s got great judgment and people skills.”
According to the KieranTimberlake website, Aitken has been an associate at KieranTimberlake since 2004. Her professional specialty is high education design, and she is currently working on major projects at Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is past president of AIA’s Philadelphia Chapter, and is on the architecture faculty of Drexel University. She received her bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis and her masters in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Contact the reporter at steven.ujifusa@gmail.com
View from Penn's Landing
May 1
Previous coverage
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly Philadelphia City Council gave final approval Thursday to rezoning sought by developers of the Stamper Square mixed-use project, proposed for the long-barren parcel that once was home to the failed NewMarket in Society Hill. The measure passed unanimously and without comment, and follows months of public debate and a review from the City Planning Commission, which gave Council an affirmative recommendation for what opponents call “spot zoning.” The ordinance allows the site’s height limit to be lifted and contains a one-year “sunset clause” and project-specific deed restriction, also urged by the Planning Commission that would revoke the new zoning should the development be stalled or changed. Marc Stein, owner of Philadelphia-based Bridgman Development, said construction should begin in November or December on the 1.5-acre property, located between 2nd, Front, Lombard and Pine streets. Financing for the project has not been finalized, but today’s approval should move that forward, Stein said. “We have union banks lined up for us,” he said. “Obviously, until we have approvals, we can’t talk realistically with anyone unless we have a project to build.” Stein is unconcerned about the current global credit crunch, and said a loan for a mixed-use project would be easier to come by than if it were a simple condominium development or a regular hotel. A 25-year deal with Starwood Resorts to operate the planned 150-room boutique hotel expires if ground has not been broken by the end of the year. The project has been controversial among residents of Society Hill, and apparently split members of the neighborhood’s active civic association. But Richard Lush, a vocal opponent of the project, said Thursday that the division was “a myth.” Lush provided members of Council with more than 20 pages of signatures from neighbors, saying they oppose spot zoning for the site, or any changes to the zoning there. He said it was a matter of historic preservation, despite the lack of a building on the site. “Our zoning code is what’s being preserved,” he said. “They say nothing is being destroyed, but our zoning is being demolished. The idea of spot zoning coming in and the site going C4, the same as Delaware Avenue with its high-rise condos, it’s antithetical to everything that created the highest residential values in the city.” Lush said he and several neighborhood lawyers were investigating avenues for lawsuits to halt construction, but provided no other details. Stein said the opponents have “put a burden on the process for other developers to come into this city. They are wasting taxpayers’ money here. Any time you give a variance to anything, it is [spot zoning]. We went through the process.” A parking spot for your support Stein also confirmed a matter that has been a consistent criticism of the project – that a few dozen residents were promised free parking spaces in exchange for their support. “Well, that’s the simple way of putting it,” he said. Residents with homes adjacent to the old NewMarket were deeded with parking spots within that old structure, he explained. Those residents were approached, “and we said, ‘You’re either for us or against us.’” “We could’ve challenged the deeds,” Stein said. “We thought it only fair” to reach out to the residents, given the two or three years that construction might be happening right outside their doors. He said 34 residents took the deal of a parking spot in exchange for support, with “four or five” declining. Completion of Stamper Square, if all goes according to schedule, is slated for late 2010 or early 2011, Stein said. In addition to the hotel, the plan calls for 77 condominium units. The design is a collaboration of the architecture firms H2L2 and Gensler. Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com.
April 30 By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly Members of City Council's Rules Committee made it clear Wednesday that they are not thrilled with the site where Foxwoods intends to build a casino complex, but they took no action on a proposal to grant the casino the zoning it needs to operate there. That's because they couldn't. The State Supreme Court already ruled on April 2 that Foxwoods has its Commercial Entertainment District status. City Council has asked the Court to reconsider its decision, but unless and until the court acts "there isn't much we can really do on it," said Council President Anna Verna after she announced the committee would stand in recess until further notice. Foxwoods spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said the casino sent representatives to the hearing out of respect for City Council, but the proposed legislation is a moot point in light of the Supreme Court's decision. Brian Abernathy, spokesman for Councilman Frank DiCicco, who submitted the proposed legislation, said that while the legislation was moot, the process wasn't, and it was important for council members to ask questions of the administration and of Foxwoods, and to hear from the public. The Supreme Court stated that it granted Foxwoods its zoning because City Council had been intentionally stalling on the issue - the same reasoning the court gave when it awarded SugarHouse Casino its CED in December. City Council has asked the court to reconsider on the basis that Council had been moving the process forward - through the legislation that the Rules Committee met about Wednesday, which was submitted by Councilman DiCicco more than two months prior to the Supreme Court's decision. Douglas Oliver, spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter, said the City is considering whether to file a brief statement in support of Council's position. DiCicco's proposal contained many caveats, including a community benefits agreement, improvements to public safety and traffic congestion, an economic impact study for the surrounding area, a satisfactory agreement between the developer and the City and Council's approval of the city's plan revisions necessary for the project. Foxwoods would need to acquire the right to build on the riparian lands of the Delaware River through the state legislature. Committee members Wednesday asked questions and heard passionate testimony on these issues and others. Relocation No meeting related to casinos happens without some members of the public pleading that Foxwoods and the city's other proposed casino, SugarHouse, be moved to different locations, away from neighborhoods and the waterfront. This time, two state representatives - Mike O'Brien and Bill Keller - said that they will soon introduce legislation that would re-open the location issue, and that State Sen. Vince Fumo will introduce a companion bill in the senate. Should the bills pass, the casino developers, city and state officials and neighborhood residents would work together to choose two alternative sites. The Gaming Board would hold hearings, and within 120 days would issue a report containing a list of alternative sites. Foxwoods and SugarHouse would then have 30 days to respond. The bills also would remove the rule that no casino can be located within 10-miles of Chester's Harness Racing Track slots - which would open up the Philadelphia International Airport as a possible site. The bills will be introduced sometime this week, O'Brien said Wednesday evening.
"The suggestion that these projects can simply be moved to another site fails to take into account the reality that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent in acquisition, development, licensing, and planning costs based on the good faith reliance that the City and State governments would do what the current legislation requires them to do," Foxwood's Garrity said in a written statement. It also ignores the fact that the Supreme Court has already given Foxwoods the right to build at its current site, she said. Riparian/submerged lands rights
O'Brien and Keller also spoke about riparian rights - also known as submerged lands rights. Basically, this is permission to build on the publicly owned lands along, or sometimes under, the river. But nothing about riparian rights is basic or simple in reality. When the Gaming Control Board chose SugarHouse and Foxwoods to build Philadelphia's two casinos, both plans required riparian rights. Now, Foxwoods says it doesn't need them, while SugarHouse says it already has them, as they were awarded by the city Commerce Department in the waning days of the Street administration. The city, city council, Philadelphia's waterfront legislators and SugarHouse are fighting in State Supreme Court over whether Philadelphia can issue those submerged land permits, or if only the state legislators have that authority. SugarHouse says the City can, and all the other parties say it cannot. The most common way to get riparian rights in Pennsylvania has long been through the General Assembly. But no legislator was keen on introducing legislation for either proposed casino. The two proposed casinos responded in different ways. SugarHouse attorneys found a 1907 law which they said gave the casino another route to riparian rights. The law gave the precursor to Philadelphia's Commerce Department the right to issue such permits. The Street administration agreed with SugarHouse's attorneys that this law was still valid, and the Commerce Department issued a permit. But the Nutter administration agrees with state legislators that the 1907 law was superceded by the Dam Safety and Encroachment Act of 1978, and that the legislature. This is the heart of the case the state Supreme Court justices are currently weighing. Foxwoods' developers changed their building plans, pulling in a promenade. "Foxwoods did not request a riparian license from the state or the city. Our position is that we don't need it for this development," attorney Carl Primavera told the committee Wednesday. O'Brien and Keller did not agree. They say the project still requires riparian rights, and that the dispute exists because Foxwoods' definition of riparian land is incorrect. Foxwoods is using a common definition - one established by the U.S. Secretary of War in 1940. Under this definition, riparian land is that between the bulkhead - or the place where a bulkhead should be - and the pierhead - the furthest limit to which a pier can be built, so that it does not interfere with the shipping channel. Primavera and other members of his team showed the council members a map of their site, showing that the casino project does not extend beyond the bulkhead line. But O'Brien said the valid definition does not set the boundaries at the bulkhead and pierhead, but at the high water mark and low water mark, as stated in Black's Law Dictionary. Riparian lands were established when the British Crown gave them to the Commonwealth, he said, and they were based on the flow of the river in 1787. During his testimony, Keller showed a map of the river back then, and it sliced through the current Foxwood site. O'Brien said the bulkhead/pierhead boundaries may have been used for a time, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deleted the bulkhead and pierhead lines in 1990. He submitted a copy of the public notice of this change for the record, and in it, Lt. Col. Kenneth Clow wrote that he decided to delete these harbor lines in the Delaware, Schuylkill and Christiana Rivers because other laws and regulations protect the navigation channel that they were designed to protect. Primavera said that Foxwoods was using the same riparian lands definition as the state, and that O'Brien and Keller's would amount to creating a new set of rules. Changing the rules would mean that Walmart and other large developments are actually on riparian land, he said, because it was the bulkhead/pierhead boundaries that were used for them. Agreements made with the Street administration Committee members were greatly displeased with a development and tax and claim settlement agreement that Foxwoods reached with the previous administration on Jan. 4, and they gave the city's legal department a lot of homework to do regarding the terms and how they were reached. For example, Foxwoods agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle back real estate taxes owed on the property through 2007. But neither City Solicitor Shelley Smith - who came to the position after Mayor Nutter took office, nor Chief Deputy Solicitor Jim Leonard - who served in the Street administration but was not directly involved with the negotiations - could tell the council members how much money was actually owed the city. The casino has paid half the amount, Leonard said. The second installment is due 90 days after Foxwoods opens or Jan 31, 2011 - whichever comes first. The agreement was negotiated on behalf of both the city and the school district by Smith's predecessor, Romulo Diaz, Smith said. Another stumbling block for the council members: The agreement says Foxwoods will pay its "fair share" of the cost of traffic-related improvements, such as an additional I-95 ramp, should they be needed. Smith said she interpreted this as meaning that the amount would be relative to the percentage of traffic on such a ramp was the result of the casino. Foxwood's Primavera said early on the planning process, the casino was prepared to get more specific about traffic remediation. But PennDOT had advised against that, saying it was too soon to tell what conditions might exist in the future and what might be needed to alleviate them. But council members wanted something more substantial. " 'Fair share'" is not a legal term that I have ever heard,'" Councilman Bill Green said. Councilmembers were also displeased to learn that Foxwoods' contribution toward public safety is based only on the anticipated number of 911 calls generated at the casino. DiCicco called for more specifics from here on out, but there may not be any changes made. "What is your legal opinion on our standing to go back and re-do the agreement?" asked Councilman James Kenney. "I'm not sure we have found a basis to re-negotiate," Smith replied. Terry Gillen, senior advisor to Mayor Michael Nutter, said the city continues to examine the issue. Green suggested that Diaz acted improperly when he entered into the agreement, specifically where it relates to the 10-year tax abatement plan. He usurped powers that belong to council, Green said, and that could be a way to fight the agreement. Primavera suggested that council members were seeing the agreement in the wrong light. He said Diaz drove a hard bargain with Foxwoods, and made it clear that the project would not go forward without these concessions. The money for traffic abatement, improvements to the sewer system, emergency calls and other things goes beyond what is required of Foxwoods, he said. "The biggest misconception is that the development agreement is supposed to provide revenue" to the city, he said. Most of the revenue will go to the state, which will then send it back to the city to pay for streets, police, and other things. In that way, the casino is "self-funding," he said, so whatever is in the agreement is icing.
From the public
Philadelphians on both sides of the issue pleaded passionately in favor of Foxwoods or against its planned location. The reasons for or against are those familiar to anyone who has been following the saga. The largest and most vocal contingent urged council members to do something to move the casino elsewhere, and some of them hissed or heckled during Foxwoods' presentation, or when those who want the casino spoke. Among the concerns of those who don't want Foxwoods in the neighborhood: The casino will bring too much traffic, drunk drivers, and the loss of small businesses in the area. Center City resident Sharon Johnson said she had just returned from visiting St. Louis, which already has casinos. She saw the arch, and then went to an area the guidebooks said had nice shops and restaurants. "We passed empty storefront after empty storefront," she said. "The casinos were full, the city streets were empty." But some city residents and representatives of the business community said they were concerned about what would happen if the casinos aren't built. They worried that the city could miss out on jobs and on an opportunity to lower the wage tax. "We need these casinos real badly," said South Philadelphia resident Terry Bennett. He said he has worked in casinos for more than 20 years, and he disputed the notion that casino jobs are not good-paying jobs. "I raised my family working in casinos," he said, and a casino job also funded his college education and allowed him to buy his home.
Contact the reporter at kelliespatrick@gmail.com
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