Also this issue:

Convertible Living
Why new apartments in old buildings may be the key to Philly’s future.
-Patrick M. Starr

July 24-30, 2003

cityspace

Park Rage

by Daniel Brook

An emotionally charged zoning hearing sounds like a contradiction in terms, but that’s what took place Wed., July 16, when the Zoning Board of Adjustment held its second meeting on Jefferson University’s proposed garage on the 900 block of Chestnut Street. Twice during the hearing, Chairman David Auspitz asked the largely anti-garage crowd to hold its applause so the stenographer could make an accurate record. (Auspitz is the father of CP Managing Editor/A&E Debra Auspitz.) While Auspitz’s comments were limited, he assured the room that he understood the site’s significance: "This is not a place where anybody wants to make a mistake."

Most of the grueling three-and-a-half-hour hearing was taken up by people who thought the proposed 700-car garage would be a mistake. Some drew attention to the fact that the massive project on the southern side of Chestnut would block sunlight in the winter; others were concerned about the pedestrian experience of walking down a main street with curb cuts for exiting cars.

Many opponents went head-to-head with Carl Primavera, a top real estate lawyer with the Street-connected Klehr Harrison firm. Primavera pulled no punches, at one point suggesting that Zoning Board member Judith Eden should consider recusing herself since the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB), with which she was once affiliated, opposed the project. Primavera later referred to one of the many people who spoke in opposition as "this so-called witness."

In the open-comment section of the meeting, Ed Bronstein of the Design Advocacy Group urged the board to stick to the zoning code. "When the rules are waived for some," he said, "everyone is adversely affected in the long run."

Mike McGettigan, a bicycling advocate, told the board to "dodge the bullet," arguing that the proposed Chestnut Street garage should be added to the long list of potentially disastrous Philadelphia projects -- like the proposed South Street expressway -- that were prevented from happening through citizen outcry.

J. Patrick Dougherty, a Democratic committeeman for the Jefferson University area and representative of Young Involved Philadelphia, argued that the garage would destroy the pedestrian-friendly "urbanity" that makes Center City attractive to educated young people who could choose to live elsewhere.

After running more than a half-hour over schedule, the zoning board moved on to other matters. The board will not make a decision until hosting at least one more hearing.