Over objections, city planners press slots plan

Philadelphia can't afford to hold up casino development because its five-year budget plan depends on gambling revenue, city planners said yesterday.

The Planning Commission unanimously recommended yesterday that City Council give the proposed SugarHouse Casino the zoning-change and land-use approvals it needs to build in Fishtown along the Delaware River.

Yesterday's action showed that the commission will move aggressively on approvals for the city's two planned slots parlors, despite anti-casino legislation before City Council, pending legal actions, and continued resistance from neighborhood opponents and anti-gambling activists.

"The Planning Commission believes that to delay it is to put in peril our five-year plan," Janice Woodcock, the commission's executive director, said yesterday. State law requires the city to submit an annual report showing how revenue will match spending five years out.

City Council, which passed a number of anti-casino bills before the May 15 primary, now will have to act on the recommendation - and could do so as early as its meeting tomorrow. Lawyers from the city and the casinos disagree over how long Council could delay acting on SugarHouse's proposal.

About three-dozen residents of local neighborhoods and members of Casino-Free Philadelphia at the hearing objected to the plan.

Mayor Street, who supports building the $550 million SugarHouse project and the $560 million Foxwoods Casino in South Philadelphia, has projected a five-year plan that includes more than $23 million annually from slot-machine revenue. That will grow to about $4 billion by the time casinos are expected to be fully up and running in 2009 or 2010.

SugarHouse said yesterday it could be open for business in December 2008.

SugarHouse's plans call for a facility with 3,000 slot machines. One feature the city seeks is a $1 million "green roof" - a permeable surface planted with vegetation to help reduce the warming effect of the city's thousands of tarred rooftops.

In total, the city is in line to receive about $200 million annually in direct taxes and wage- and property-tax relief given directly to residents, and financial support for expanding the Convention Center, according to city and state officials.

City Solicitor Romulo Diaz Jr. said the city had asked SugarHouse and Foxwoods to forgo at least part of the estimated $10 million in property-tax abatements each is entitled to under city law.

For SugarHouse to begin construction, which it hopes to do this summer, Council will also have to approve a commercial entertainment district designation for the site - a zoning distinction it devised specifically for casino locations.

The distinction also allows for automatic approval if the city fails to act, preventing stalling tactics endorsed by casino opponents.

SugarHouse and Foxwoods are also awaiting the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision on five challenges to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's licensing decisions in December. SugarHouse and Foxwoods beat out three competitors for the two Philadelphia slots licenses authorized in the 2004 slots law.

City Councilman Frank DiCicco, who has proposed a bill that would force casinos into industrial areas of the city, had asked the commission to put off yesterday's vote.

"The commission and the developer should allow the legislative and judicial proceedings to conclude prior to approving or even considering this proposal," DiCicco wrote in a letter.

The Foxwoods plan has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.