Those of us who care about the Delaware riverfront have been saying for years that we need a comprehensive plan for its development. After a long delay, Mayor Street recently created a good planning process for the Delaware Riverfront, that includes both community representatives and one of the best team of planning professionals in the city.
However, that planning process may become moot because the future of the Delaware Riverfront may be determined in the next five legislative days in Harrisburg when Senate Bill 862 is considered by the House of Representatives. And it looks like the sponsors of SB 862 have had a plan for the waterfront all along, to recreate the Las Vega Strip on it.
If we all act now, we can stop it.
Senate Bill 862, which passed the State Senate unanimously a few weeks ago, may be the single worst piece of legislation I have ever seen in Harrisburg.
First, the bill takes away the right of Philadelphia to control zoning around the casinos and gives that power to the Gaming Control Board. It is bad enough that we in Philadelphia have no right to control where the casinos go. We must have the right to zoning not only so that we can minimize the impact of the casinos on the surrounding communities but so that we can ensure that all Philadelphia have access to a critical part of our natural heritage—the Delaware riverfront.
Second, the bill takes away most other regulatory authority of the city over the casino sites. City building and fire codes will not apply at the casinos. Water and sewer regulations will not apply there. Our smoking ban will not apply there. Nor will our billboard law. Some lawyers even think that the rules and regulations of the state Department of Environmental Protection will not apply there. Rule and regulations in these areas will be made, if they choose, by the Gaming Control Board.
Third, the bill gives the Gaming Control Board authority not only over the casino sites but over adjacent sites, those that are “adjoining, including connection by a pedestrian walkway, bridge or easement, to the land-based location of the licensed facility.” Because of this language, if casinos purchase property—or just easements on property—up and down the riverfront, control over our waterfront will be turned over to the Gaming Control Board. If they buy property across Columbus Boulevard, the authority could encroach on the adjoining neighborhoods and then reach into Center City.
SB 826 makes Gaming Control Board Chair Tad Decker what Matt Ruben has called an Imperial Viceroy over a major section of the city—an unelected, uncontrollable, and irresponsible ruler over whom we the people have no political control.
Defenders of SB 826 say that it incorporates many of the zoning ideas of the City’s Commercial Entertainment District (CED) proposal. But if you look closely, you will see that this not so. The CED proposal requires a 50 feet riverfront promenade for pedestrians and bikes. SB 862 only requires 20 feet. The CED proposal limits the size of billboards and prohibits flashing, neon, or animated billboards. SB 862 allows enormous billboards that can advertise anything, not just the casinos, and allows flashing, neon, or animated signs. The CED proposal has reasonable height and size restrictions on building along the riverfront. SB 862 allows much larger and taller buildings.
Why does anyone support these provision of SB 862? Think ahead a little bit and the answer becomes clear. We have all been complaining that there is no plan for the riverfront. It turns out that this is not necessarily true. Some of our politicians do have a plan. It is for creating a Las Vegas strip along the Delaware.
We need to act, right now, to stop this plan. You can contact your state legislators, the leadership of the General Assembly, and Governor Rendell by using the Hallwatch Faxbank Ed Goppelt set up today. Go to http://www.hallwatch.org/faxbank/sb862. Please do it today as action on this bill is imminent in the House.
(Some addition information about the bill will be available soon here).