You may think that Philadelphia is run by the mayor in
City Hall. In fact, there are 10 mini-mayors around town who rule their turf
with near-absolute power: City Council's district representatives. They alone
determine what projects get built, where bike lanes are located, whether
residents can nominate their neighborhoods for historic status, and much, much
else.
Their power comes largely from their ability to veto
zoning bills. That may explain why some Council members remain intent on undermining
the new zoning code, which was designed to simplify development in Philadelphia
by reducing the need for special bills and variances. As long as the
mini-mayors hang onto their gatekeeping role, they know that people who want to
build will have to come and pay homage to them.
The catchall name for this practice is councilmanic
prerogative, a term borrowed - without irony - from royalty. The prerogative
pretty much sums up the way Old Philadelphia works. But ritualized kowtowing is
not how New Philadelphia likes to operate. This group is more inclined to do
things out in the open, and so they're increasingly taking to the Internet to
circumvent the creaky old power structure.
The most recent example of this quiet revolution involves
an apartment house proposed for a large, overgrown lot at 43d Street and
Baltimore Avenue, in West Philadelphia's Spruce Hill section. Because the
project needed a bunch of zoning changes, the developers, U3 Advisors and the
Thylan Group, sought neighborhood input early, before they had a design. More
than a hundred residents participated in the discussions. It was such an
inspiring approach that I featured it in a column last fall.
Not only did the collaboration produce an excellent
design by Cecil Baker + Partners, it also got the neighborhood excited about a
sleek new development in their midst, one that promised to include space for a
high-end restaurant and a fitness club. The Planning Commission joined in the
applause.
With everyone happy, you would think a zoning approval
would be a slam-dunk, right? In April, the developers went to see the district
representative, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, to ask her to sponsor a bill
changing the site's zoning, from high-density residential to mixed-use
residential/commercial. They talked up the project's many merits - its retail
component, small public plaza, hidden parking, and, of course, the strong
neighborhood support.
What they got was radio silence.
Tired of waiting for Blackwell to act, Spruce Hill's
community organizations decided to take matters into their own hands. Last
week, the Friends of Clark Park posted a petition on Change.org that called on
Blackwell to allow the zoning changes to go through.
Their call to arms was quickly followed by a mass e-mail
from the Spruce Hill Community Association urging members to blitz her office
with letters. "Quantity matters," the e-mail noted. The University
City Historical Society soon jumped on the bandwagon.
So far, radio silence continues. Blackwell didn't respond
to my calls or e-mails, either. Nor did her aide, Marty Cabry.
But how long can she ignore this chunk of her
constituency?
If there was ever a man-bites-dog zoning story, this is
it. Usually, when neighborhood groups spring into action, it's to block change
and increased density. Tensions between residents and developers run especially
deep in Spruce Hill, a neighborhood still thick with '60s-era activists.
"Dissent is a way of life," noted Barry
Grossbach, the community group's zoning chairman, in a letter to Blackwell
urging her to support the zoning change. But this is a project "we don't
want to fall apart."
U3 won such impassioned support partly by listening to
residents, but also by explaining how a taller, denser building could be good
for the neighborhood. Along with plenty of ground-floor retail, developers plan
132 spacious, upscale apartments that will be targeted to professionals rather
than students, which the neighborhood has in excess. In designing the building,
the architects carefully articulated its massing to preserve views of Clark
Park along Baltimore Avenue. It gently ascends from five stories on the park
side, to eight along the avenue.
The developers also made their case by showing how the
current zoning limited their options. That zoning classification is so out of
date that developers say the only thing they could profitably build is a
blocky, three-story apartment house that would be crammed with dormlike units.
The existing zoning actually prohibits retail, even though Baltimore Avenue is
an emerging commercial corridor served by excellent transit.
There are sites all over Philadelphia where the zoning is
similarly out of whack. Since the new code was adopted, the Planning Commission
has been working overtime to update its maps and correct the classifications,
site by site. Once a district's entire remapping is finished, it needs the
local Council gatekeeper to approve and introduce legislation formalizing the
changes.
For the last 15 months, Blackwell has refused to do that
for her district.
Residents say West Philadelphia's mini-mayor hasn't
offered much of an explanation. For years, she has blocked the creation of a
historic district in Spruce Hill that would protect its blocks of stunning
Victorian houses, also with no clear explanation.
Letting these worthy bills languish isn't making West
Philadelphia a better place to live. Just the opposite. The districtwide
remapping would have corrected the zoning problem at 43d and Baltimore. In
theory, U3 could start construction tomorrow on its dorm-style building. In the
interest of good citizenship, the company has tried to avoid that option. It's
unlikely to wait forever.
Shouldn't Blackwell demonstrate that she can be a good
citizen, too?
Source: Philly.com
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