Court: Logan Square residents can't stop Franklin Institute sign

CITIZENS CAN'T stop the Franklin Institute from putting a digital sign outside the museum near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Commonwealth Court has ruled.

In a 6-1 decision last week, the court found that nearby residents, who want to challenge the legality of the Zoning Board of Adjustment issuing a variance to allow the digital sign, don't live close enough to be negatively affected by a digital sign.

Samuel C. Stretton, the attorney representing the Logan Square residents and Scenic Philadelphia, said he would file a petition to the state Supreme Court next week asking for the right to appeal the decision.

"Allowing one digital sign means others will follow," Stretton said angrily.

"It will change the nature and character of the Parkway, from the beauty we are all proud of, to some kind of Las Vegas strip with a mass of flashing billboards and intermittent signs," Stretton said. "The city should be enforcing its own laws, but they're on the other side."

Michael Sklaroff, the attorney who argued the case Feb. 12 on behalf of the Franklin Institute, said he was pleased that the court ruled in the museum's favor.

But Mary Tracy, executive director of Scenic Philadelphia, said the decision "slams the courthouse doors to every Philadelphia citizen who wants to challenge critical issues regarding public space in our city."

The case began in July 2012 when the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections denied the Franklin Institute's request for a permit to convert its current vinyl sign to digital. The museum is on 21st Street near the Parkway.

"L&I did its job," Tracy said. "They told them that a flashing, intermittent sign cannot be placed near the Parkway under the city's zoning code."

But Sklaroff contended yesterday that L&I should have issued the permit "over the counter, because this was neither a flashing nor intermittent sign. It's a changing sign."

Commonwealth Judge Dan Pellegrini wrote that "digital technology" means that new electronic signs are "much more intrusive to a neighborhood."

"The image is supplied to the sign by a computer; the image can be varied at will, which makes it nothing more than an enormous 'television on a stick.' "

Pellegrini said he would have permitted the neighbors to object if the planned Franklin Institute sign was a "non-accessory billboard" advertising another institution or business.

Despite acknowledging that digital signs can distract drivers, Pellegrini sided with the majority.

In her lone dissent, Commonwealth Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter wrote:

"The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is no ordinary street. It is an artistic monument like the cultural institutions that line it, enjoyed not only by Philadelphians, but by visitors from all over the world."

She added: "I would allow standing to citizens of the city, not because they are taxpayers, but because they are the intended beneficiaries of this beautiful civic treasure and they would truly be aggrieved if it were to be spoiled."

Meanwhile yesterday, Councilman Bobby Henon withdrew his legislation to overhaul the city's sign laws in the wake of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's action on April 13, revoking the city's authority to establish rules for certain outdoor advertising.

Henon said that he and other city officials need to have discussions with PennDOT.

As the Daily News reported last week, PennDOT said the state could lose 10 percent of its federal transportation money if the city's billboards do not comply with federal highway laws.