If all goes as planned, today's City Council hearing may be the next step in community leaders' fight to stop the construction of Philadelphia's casinos.
Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose district encompasses the locations of two casinos that are scheduled to open next year, has sponsored a bill that would place a referendum on the May 15 primary ballot asking voters to ban casinos within 1,500 feet of any home, school or house of worship.
The bill - which would limit casinos to the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia and a small parcel near the Betsy Ross Bridge - comes to vote today, two weeks after a local court threw out over 27,000 signatures that advocacy group Casino Free Philadelphia had collected in order to try to add the referendum to the ballot.
Casino Free Philadelphia spokesman Daniel Hunter criticized the ruling, saying it was a sign of the dirty tactics the SugarHouse Casino was using to squash legal resistance, adding that the process for rejecting the petition was done "without looking at a single signature."
SugarHouse is slated to be built in the Fishtown area of Philadelphia, while the other casino, Foxwoods, is planned for South Philadelphia.
For his part, SugarHouse spokesman John Miller applauded the legal decision, calling the group's petitions "absurdly inadequate" and writing in an e-mail that "less than half the [petition] signatures were even [from] registered voters."
The decision has ultimately put another roadblock in front of local activists' push to drive the casinos out, but DiCicco thinks it's a roadblock they can overcome.
Because of the failed petitions, Council will now need to give a 12-vote supermajority instead of a nine-vote majority to pass the bill, a total DiCicco's legislative aide, Brian Abernathy, said the councilman is "cautiously optmistic" about receiving.
If passed, litigation would likely follow, but the referendum vote could ultimately override the decision to place the two casinos along the Delaware waterfront.
Critics charge that the casinos will cause disruptions to local neighborhoods and create massive traffic problems for major roadways.
SugarHouse, however, is challenging the City Council's hiring of a lawyer at DiCicco's request to sue to stop casino construction.
Miller said the city doesn't have legal standing to sue about the casino issue, and that the company "will let our legal efforts speak for themselves."
Officials from Foxwoods could not be reached for comment.
