Community groups throughout the city breathed a sigh of relief last Thursday -- at least temporarily -- as City Council held a bill that would restrict zoning decision protests.
Councilman Frank DiCicco, one of the bill's chief backers, said that the voting on Bill 629 was being shelved until after Council's summer recess to "lead a communication onslaught" against a perceived scare tactic campaign by the measure's opponents.
"While there is no doubt that this bill would have passed today, I feel very strongly that this bill should not become law under a cloud of misunderstanding and a malicious campaign of misrepresentation," DiCicco, whose district includes the eastern half of Center City, said.
Although popularly believed that it applies only to billboards, Bill 629 would limit those who can appeal any zoning-board decision in court. Currently, "any taxpayer" can appeal a zoning board decision, but the legislation would only allow "aggrieved taxpayers" -- those abutting to the property in question --ÿto take a stance.
Barry Grossbach, executive vice president of the Spruce Hill Community Association, believed that the delay in voting on the bill was symbolic of its underlying troubles.
"Usually when you have the votes to pass something, you pass it," Grossbach said. "I suspect if this had been a popular bill, then Council would have felt more comfortable passing a `yes' vote for it."
"I'm hoping that holding the bill is a prelude to its discrete burial," he added.
DiCicco said in an interview that although he already had enough votes to pass the measure, he wanted to give his colleagues some more "breathing room" and allow them time to talk to their constituents.
"We are hopeful that something will evolve that everybody can support," Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who represents West Philadelphia, said of her support for the bill.
However, DiCicco said that he does not expect to make any changes to the bill. And Mark Hughes, senior scholar with the Fox Leadership Program, believed that additional talk would only highlight the bill's faults.
"More truly open and informed conversation about this bill would lead to its never being passed," Hughes said.
Civic group members protesting Bill 629 jammed into Council's Caucus Room prior to the full Council meeting to hear DiCicco announce the bill's delay.
Among those present was Mark Hanlon, president of Concerned Neighbors United, a Mt. Airy-based group that is protesting the expansion of an Acme supermarket in its neighborhood.
"This is an incredible attack on our rights," Hanlon said, adding that Bill 629 would reduce his group's membership from 600 to 24 residents. "It's a lot easier to tell 24 people, `Sorry,' than it is to tell 600. It's a divide and conquer approach, and we're just not going to allow it to happen."
Hughes agreed, saying that the bill would undermine the rights of the "little people."
"It's a dagger at the heart of how everyday people come together to combine forces to take on powerful special interests," Hughes said.
However, John Hawkins, legislative aide to Councilman-at-Large James Kenney, offered a different opinion.
"If somebody is going to build something next to your house, you should have greater say as to whether it's going to get built than somebody from the other side of the city," Hawkins said.
Restricting the zoning appeals process may result in situations that are not in the public's best interest, according to City Planning professor John Keene, who teaches planning law. And in certain cases that will affect the entire city's tax base -- such as new stadiums -- he felt that all residents should have a right to protest.
But the real issue is the "crazy quilt" of inadequate zoning laws which are "hopelessly out of date," according to City Planning Commission Chairman and Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack.
"The symptom of the problem is the Zoning Board of Adjustments and the rules with which they operate, but the problem is the underlying zoning," Hack said, describing how, if his 15'-wide historic Center City home burnt down, current zoning laws would not allow anything less than 16' wide to be built in its place.
Though Hack believed that one of the intents of Bill 629 was to streamline the zoning appeals process by having less cases and fewer people involved, others saw it as just politics as usual.
"That was one of the most outrageous actions in the long and sad history of Philadelphia city government," Political Science Chairman Jack Nagel said of the introduction of Bill 629. "It's a continuation of a tradition here of political sell-outs."
