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Nutter speech inspires city planners

As college graduates are often told at this time of year, half of life is just showing up. For political leaders, half the job is just stating their goals, then telling the public how they expect to realize them. In the first major policy speech of his five-month-old administration, Mayor Nutter presented a pitch-perfect vision on a subject that rarely gets people's hearts racing: planning and zoning.

Mayor Nutter, at the Academy of Natural Sciences, vowed a strong municipal commitment to city planning.
Mayor Nutter, at the Academy of Natural Sciences, vowed a strong municipal commitment to city planning.Read moreSARAH J. GLOVER / Inquirer Staff

As college graduates are often told at this time of year, half of life is just showing up. For political leaders, half the job is just stating their goals, then telling the public how they expect to realize them.

In the first major policy speech of his five-month-old administration, Mayor Nutter presented a pitch-perfect vision on a subject that rarely gets people's hearts racing: planning and zoning. But he was less successful in describing the concrete measures that he'll use to turn that stirring vision into reality.

The mayor's address, delivered Tuesday to an overflow crowd of 600 people at the Academy of Natural Sciences, was remarkable on several levels. It has been a long time since a Philadelphia mayor has laid out his views with such depth of thought and eloquence. That Nutter chose to give prominence to the wonkish subject of planning, rather than more visceral topics such as crime or taxes, was a statement in itself.

Coming after 16 years in which Philadelphia's mayors were generally indifferent, and sometimes hostile, to the nitty-gritty of urban planning, Nutter's speech amounted to a vindication for those who believe that planners - not developers and their lawyers - should lead the discussion of how new buildings are sited, designed and woven into the city's fabric. Nutter made it plain that a strong and assertive Planning Commission was not just good government but vitally linked to Philadelphia's economic health.

"I want to return the Planning Commission to its historic, charter-based leadership role," he told the crowd, which drew heavily from the local planning and development worlds, and which gave him a standing ovation before and after the speech.

Over the years, as developers became a major source of campaign contributions, they were increasingly able to dictate their will to city planners. Major policy decisions were made ad hoc by the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which knew little of the larger issues. Meanwhile, neighborhood groups had to hire private planners to defend their interests. The city paid the price for this laissez-faire approach as more overscaled, automobile-oriented buildings were inserted into Philadelphia's gentle, walkable streets.

Nutter vowed to overhaul that system. From now on, he said, all major development projects must be submitted first to city planners for a thorough review.

He also suggested that he would ask City Council to help him amend the Home Rule Charter to give planners more authority. The absence of serious planning can be traced directly to the charter, which describes the Planning Commission merely as "advisory."

For beaten-down city planners, just hearing that Philadelphia's top elected official has got their back is sure to be empowering.

Yet given that Nutter was preaching to the choir, there was much post-speech grumbling. Many said they were disappointed that he had not offered much more than supportive words.

Gray Smith, a private planner who served on Nutter's transition team, said that unless they were backed up with concrete proposals, the mayor's lofty words would be perceived as "platitudes."

As groundbreaking as Nutter's speech was, there was much he did not say.

Many expected him to announce that he had found a major figure to head the city's Planning Department. He did not. He offered no increased funding to hire more planners for the seriously overworked agency.

The most glaring omission was Nutter's failure to say anything about the deeply embedded tradition known as councilmanic prerogative. Under that system, Council members can rezone sites in their districts without opposition from their colleagues. The city is replete with arbitrary, spot-zoned parcels. Those special-interest rezonings defeat the efforts of planners to make decisions based on the greater good.

So it was telling that yesterday, two days after Nutter's speech, Councilman Darrell L. Clarke introduced a bill to rezone a site at 18th and Arch Streets to make way for a 1,500-foot-tall skyscraper even though planners have yet to review the project's design and amenities.

Still, there was a real sign of change in the strings that Andy Altman, deputy mayor for planning, attached to the bill. Before the new zoning can be put in force, the development proposal must pass muster with planners. The big question is why Nutter didn't insist on that approval first and rezoning second.

In an interview yesterday, Altman said it would take time for Nutter to turn the big ship of city government around. "The words matter. The actions will follow," he said.

For many, it was enough that Nutter unambiguously endorsed a major plan for the Delaware River waterfront and the creation of a Design Review Committee.

No doubt many in the audience pinched themselves when Nutter described Philadelphia as if it were a progressive West Coast city rather than a Rust Belt survivor:

"We are a walkable city, increasingly home to bicycles," Nutter declared. "We want to preserve our urban form. We do not want the automobile and its design requirements to dominate the landscape."

Platitudes, maybe. But what stirring ones.