Council gives preliminary OK to SugarHouse expansion

In a busy morning of committee hearings, City Council gave preliminary approval Wednesday to bills that would allow SugarHouse Casino to expand and another that would clear the way for a controversial development project in Germantown.

The SugarHouse project would more than double the size of the casino situated in the neighborhoods of Fishtown and Northern Liberties, add a seven-story parking garage, and extend a public river walk along the Delaware.

Greg Carlin, the casino's CEO, said the project could begin next summer and be completed by fall 2013 if all the necessary approvals are granted in time.

But casino construction has always been controversial in Philadelphia, and SugarHouse's plans are not without opponents.

The Central Delaware Advocacy Group, which represents 21 neighborhood and community associations, opposes the expansion because the project "is incredibly bad land use," attorney Paul Boni testified.

He said the parking garage and the casino's "sea of surface parking" violate the civic vision of a waterfront more connected to the city grid and typical urban living.

"If any other developer in this city came before you for approval for this mammoth parking garage, you would require that it have retail or active uses around the ground floor," he said. "That's just basic land-use planning."

Carlin, however, boasted of the casino's hiring record, economic performance, and tax contributions.

"From the very beginning, we've been committed to being a good neighbor and good corporate citizen," he said.

The members of Council's Rules Committee also approved an ordinance to amend a Germantown zoning ordinance that would allow a Save-A-Lot and Dollar Tree discount store to operate in a development there.

Many neighbors opposed the plan, hoping for a more upscale development to replace the Fresh Grocer that vacated the site last year.

In a separate committee hearing, Council members approved a bill that would require certain city contractors to provide the same benefits to life partners as they would to spouses of employees.

More than half of Fortune 500 companies offer life-partner benefits to attract and retain employees, said Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced the bill.

"This bill says that if you want to do business with our city, you must do right by all its citizens," said Sara Jacobson, a board member of the Liberty City Democratic Club.