Foxwoods' traffic consultant, Jeffrey L. Greene of Orth-Rogers & Associates, told City Council yesterday that Foxwoods could save commuters valuable seconds at the worst travel times of the day - and improve conditions for truckers coming to and from port facilities.

"I believe in this analysis," Greene told Council's Rules Committee, which would have to approve the zoning classification that would allow the proposed $670 million casino to be built.

Foxwoods plans to add a sophisticated, adjustable-timing traffic-light system and turn lanes at Morris Street, Washington Avenue, and the I-95/I-676 entrance. The improvements would be built well beyond the project's limits, including up and down Columbus Boulevard and Delaware Avenue, Greene said.

Council clearly did not share Greene's confidence in the improvements.

Councilman Jim Kenney called Greene's claims "counterintuitive."

"I've never been able to comprehend it," Councilman Frank DiCicco said of the plan.

Responding to pressure from neighborhood groups allied with anticasino activists, Council has blocked the casino project from proceeding. Foxwoods has asked the state Supreme Court to grant it zoning based on the city's alleged obstruction, but that case is pending.

In the meantime, DiCicco, who controls zoning matters in the Council district where Foxwoods would be built, established a strict set of criteria to be met in order for the zoning to be approved and scheduled four hearings to scrutinize the project. Yesterday was the second hearing, with traffic and economic impact on the table. The next is scheduled for April 4.

Council's experts said Foxwoods had underestimated the number of expected vehicles, neglected to account for added delays at intersections, and failed to provide traffic remedies for the second and third phases of its project - which includes 5,000 slot machines and a hotel.

Matt Ruben of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association questioned whether Foxwoods could generate the revenue promised for Pennsylvania tax relief when it had no plan for traffic at full build-out.

Harris Steinberg, executive director of PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the University of Pennsylvania's design school, said Foxwoods' big-box design for its casino plan was inconsistent with the civic vision of the waterfront that his organization helped develop last year. That vision includes a waterfront with a street-grid pattern and plenty of open space that is inviting to pedestrians.

"It would be very difficult to get to it by foot - and to want to get to it," Steinberg said.

Council has not been a friendly audience to Foxwoods and the second planned casino, SugarHouse in Fishtown/Northern Liberties, and now the casinos have to deal with a skeptical administration.

Unlike his predecessor, who actively advocated for the casinos, Mayor Nutter has taken a cautious approach.

Yesterday, Nutter's point person on casinos, senior adviser Terry Gillen, applauded Council for demanding an independent economic impact study from Foxwoods to determine effects on businesses in a two-mile radius. She warned that spending at casinos in other cities had directed money away from local businesses.

But Stephen Mullin, who produced a financial-impact study for Foxwoods as vice president of Econsult Corp., agreed with the Philadelphia Casino Advisory Task Force's findings in 2005 that at least 75 percent of casino revenue would be money captured from outside the city, or money that Philadelphians now spend in Atlantic City or other locales that allow gambling.

Mullin, a former city commerce director, said the negative effects on local businesses would be negligible and would be partially offset by casino visitors' and employees' spending.