In a message dated 12/28/2008 4:37:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, anthony_w...@earthlink.net writes:
ZBA will undoubtedly attempt to answer this question in part by weighing the value of the project to the local and citywide economy. It's impossible to keep issues like these out of ZBA deliberations ... although they do not govern its decisions, they are surely factored in. Your determination that this project can easily be shifted somewhere else may play a role in ZBA's decision. However, Penn's determination will also play a role (it is, after all, closer to the project than you are). Suppose your determination and Penn's differ. Once again, it's unrealistic for you to think ZBA will admit your testimony on a large real-estate project while excluding Penn's. If ZBA does any of these things, and it certainly may, it is not following the law as set forth explicitly in the Philadelphia Code. Unlike the PCPC, which seems to have no formal guidelines at all and is apparently free to ignore its own earlier findings (e.g., "The Plan for West Philadelphia" which explicitly puts the southern end of the "40th Street Commercial Corridor" at Locust Street), and the Historical Commission, which has rather vague guidelines and therefore has some room for interpretation and preference, results whose basis seems to be in that age-old maxim "de gustabus non disputandum est" does not apply to zoning decisions. The Philadelphia Code is quite explicit about the criteria for granting a variance and about the burden of proof being on the applicant. To the extent that alleged value to the city, for instance, is factored into ZBA's deliberations, that administrative body is acting contrary to rather clearly stated law and is opening itself up to embarrassing rebuke in court. Councilman Bill Green made an interesting statement with respect to a suit being brought by several members of Council (including Mrs Blackwell) to keep the mayor from closing branch libraries without Council approval -- in contrasting it with a "citizens' suit" to stop the closings. It was reported as in the Inquirer as follows: Yesterday's action follows a lawsuit filed Tuesday by seven city residents and the white-collar municipal union that also seeks to prevent Nutter from closing the libraries without Council permission. That lawsuit included anecdotal accounts of the plaintiffs' library use and described how they would be affected if the branches were closed. "That's an emotional suit. This is dispassionate. It's a clear and very simple request of the court, which is to ask the Free Library board and the administration to comply with city law," Green said, adding that lawyers on his staff drafted the motion and would handle the court appearances as well. I think the analogy is quite clear and relevant. What's gone up until now has been emotional. Getting to the issue of zoning variances, the ZBA will either "comply with city law" on its own, or face the high likelihood that a court will instruct it to do so. Always at your service and ready for a diatribe -- er, dialog. Al Krigman **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)
