Changing Skyline: In W. Phila., Blackwell's silence holds up worthy project

You may think that Philadelphia is run by the mayor in City Hall. In fact, there are 10 mini-mayors around town who rule their turf with near-absolute power: City Council's district representatives. They alone determine what projects get built, where bike lanes are located, whether residents can nominate their neighborhoods for historic status, and much, much else.

Their power comes largely from their ability to veto zoning bills. That may explain why some Council members remain intent on undermining the new zoning code, which was designed to simplify development in Philadelphia by reducing the need for special bills and variances. As long as the mini-mayors hang onto their gatekeeping role, they know that people who want to build will have to come and pay homage to them.

The catchall name for this practice is councilmanic prerogative, a term borrowed - without irony - from royalty. The prerogative pretty much sums up the way Old Philadelphia works. But ritualized kowtowing is not how New Philadelphia likes to operate. This group is more inclined to do things out in the open, and so they're increasingly taking to the Internet to circumvent the creaky old power structure.

The most recent example of this quiet revolution involves an apartment house proposed for a large, overgrown lot at 43d Street and Baltimore Avenue, in West Philadelphia's Spruce Hill section. Because the project needed a bunch of zoning changes, the developers, U3 Ventures and the Thylan Group, sought neighborhood input early, before they had a design. More than a hundred residents participated in the discussions. It was such an inspiring approach that I featured it in a column last fall.

Not only did the collaboration produce an excellent design by Cecil Baker + Partners, it also got the neighborhood excited about a sleek new development in their midst, one that promised to include space for a high-end restaurant and a fitness club. The Planning Commission joined in the applause.

With everyone happy, you would think a zoning approval would be a slam-dunk, right? In April, the developers went to see the district representative, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, to ask her to sponsor a bill changing the site's zoning, from high-density residential to mixed-use residential/commercial. They talked up the project's many merits - its retail component, small public plaza, hidden parking, and, of course, the strong neighborhood support.

What they got was radio silence.

Tired of waiting for Blackwell to act, Spruce Hill's community organizations decided to take matters into their own hands. Last week, the Friends of Clark Park posted a petition on Change.org that called on Blackwell to allow the zoning changes to go through.

Their call to arms was quickly followed by a mass e-mail from the Spruce Hill Community Association urging members to blitz her office with letters. "Quantity matters," the e-mail noted. The University City Historical Society soon jumped on the bandwagon.

So far, radio silence continues. Blackwell didn't respond to my calls or e-mails, either. Nor did her aide, Marty Cabry.

But how long can she ignore this chunk of her constituency?

If there was ever a man-bites-dog zoning story, this is it. Usually, when neighborhood groups spring into action, it's to block change and increased density. Tensions between residents and developers run especially deep in Spruce Hill, a neighborhood still thick with '60s-era activists.

"Dissent is a way of life," noted Barry Grossbach, the community group's zoning chairman, in a letter to Blackwell urging her to support the zoning change. But this is a project "we don't want to fall apart."

U3 won such impassioned support partly by listening to residents, but also by explaining how a taller, denser building could be good for the neighborhood. Along with plenty of ground-floor retail, developers plan 132 spacious, upscale apartments that will be targeted to professionals rather than students, which the neighborhood has in excess. In designing the building, the architects carefully articulated its massing to preserve views of Clark Park along Baltimore Avenue. It gently ascends from five stories on the park side, to eight along the avenue.

The developers also made their case by showing how the current zoning limited their options. That zoning classification is so out of date that developers say the only thing they could profitably build is a blocky, three-story apartment house that would be crammed with dormlike units. The existing zoning actually prohibits retail, even though Baltimore Avenue is an emerging commercial corridor served by excellent transit.

There are sites all over Philadelphia where the zoning is similarly out of whack. Since the new code was adopted, the Planning Commission has been working overtime to update its maps and correct the classifications, site by site. Once a district's entire remapping is finished, it needs the local Council gatekeeper to approve and introduce legislation formalizing the changes.

For the last 15 months, Blackwell has refused to do that for her district.

Residents say West Philadelphia's mini-mayor hasn't offered much of an explanation. For years, she has blocked the creation of a historic district in Spruce Hill that would protect its blocks of stunning Victorian houses, also with no clear explanation.

Letting these worthy bills languish isn't making West Philadelphia a better place to live. Just the opposite. The districtwide remapping would have corrected the zoning problem at 43d and Baltimore. In theory, U3 could start construction tomorrow on its dorm-style building. In the interest of good citizenship, the company has tried to avoid that option. It's unlikely to wait forever.

Shouldn't Blackwell demonstrate that she can be a good citizen, too?

Update: Some have asked why U3 didn't apply for a variance at the Zoning Board. The developers say they felt they could not prove hardship, the standard used to determine whether variances are warranted, and that the process would be a waste of money and time.