IT’S NO GAG…
Philadelphians want their legal voices
back!
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Citizens Rally at City Hall
Room 401
June 13, 2005 at 10:00
FOR
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Mary Tracy, Executive
Director
Society Created to Reduce
Urban Blight
215-731-1796
scrub@urbanblight.org
Rep. Mark Cohen to Introduce Bill to Restore
Taxpayer Rights in Zoning Cases
State
Rep. Mark Cohen (D-Phila) and twenty-two co-sponsors
will introduce legislation in Harrisburg that will restore Philadelphia
taxpayer rights stripped last December when a controversial stealth amendment
was added to HB 1954. Cohen will
provide details of the new bill at a press conference and rally set for Monday, June 13th
at 9:45 am in Philadelphia City Hall, Room 401.
Neighborhood
groups were outraged when the Senate Appropriations Committee, through a late
night sneak amendment, changed the purpose of HB 1954 from helping the city
raise the amount of fines for code violations, to meddling with
Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter and the long existing right of
“Philadelphia taxpayers” to challenge Zoning Board decisions. This
“silence the citizens” stealth
amendment has set new legal hurdles for community groups through a
“detrimentally harmed” standard that will complicate and possibly
eliminate a citizen’s ability to challenge zoning decisions. The “silence the citizens’” supporters claim it will
only bring Philadelphia
in line with the rest of the state.
But SCRUB believes that lawmakers who support
“silence the citizens” have tipped
the system further to benefit select industries in Philadelphia,
to the detriment of the neighborhoods.
The
new legal standard is already proving costly for civic associations who are forced to litigate twice: first to prove standing, and
if they prevail, then to litigate the actual merits of the case. Since
enactment of the bill in December several community groups, including Society
Hill Civic Association and East Falls CDC have faced standing challenges based
on the amended Act 193 of 2004.
Cohen
emphasizes that “this new legislation is
important because it restores the neighborhood voices silenced by Act 193
passed in November of 2004.”
Since passage of Act 193 a coalition of neighborhood organizations
including SCRUB, the Center City Residents Association, the Society Hill Civic
Association, and the Preservation Alliance have been urging state legislators
to support Cohen’s bill. The Philadelphia
delegation has responded positively to the requests of their constituents and
most have signed on as co-sponsors.
SCRUB
firmly believes that Philadelphia
taxpayers and neighborhoods need the “any taxpayer” standard to
combat the erroneous decisions of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Mary Tracy,
SCRUB’s executive director said, “SCRUB members applaud Rep. Cohen
and the leadership of the Philadelphia
delegation for supporting citizens’ rights and the rights of Philadelphia’s
community groups to have a legal voice in community development.”
###
Community Groups Supporting PA House Bill 1698:
Society Created to Reduce
Urban Blight
Overbrook Farms Club*
Center City Residents Association*
Philadelphia Parks Alliance
Cedar Park Neighbors*
Society Hill Civic
Association*
The Preservation Alliance*
Nat’l Assoc. of
African Americans for Positive Imagery (NAAAPI)
Upper Northwood Community
Council*
Oxford Circle Civic Association
Ridge Park Civic Association*
Northern Liberties
Neighbors Association*
Northwood Civic
Association*
West Mt. Airy Neighbors*
East Mt. Airy Neighbors*
Powelton Village Civic Association*
Tacony Civic Association*
West
Poplar Neighborhood Advisory Council*
Mt Airy USA CCD*
St. Paul’s Baptist Church Community Center*
Northwest Greens*
* Attending Press Conference
Scroll down for two
past articles
Posted Feb. 11, 2005
HOME-RULE RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
Inquirer Columnist
It was
done in secret. It took place in the middle of the night. It involved a
theft. The victims were completely surprised by the
attack.
Does it sound like a
mugging? In a way, it was.
Only the mugger was the
Pennsylvania Legislature. The victims were the citizens of Philadelphia. What was stolen were their rights.
It happened in late
November, just as the House and Senate were about to adjourn for the year. And just itching to get out of town.
Out of nowhere appeared
House Bill 1954, an innocuous-looking bill that started life as a measure to
authorize the City of Philadelphia to increase
the fines charged for code violations.
At the last minute, an
amendment was added in committee that was aimed
squarely at SCRUB, the anti-billboard and anti-blight group that has been very
successful in the courts in challenging the legality of billboards.
However, the amendment
was so broadly written that it had the effect of excluding not only SCRUB from
legal standing in zoning cases, but any neighborhood,
civic or community group that couldn't meet the bill's narrow definition.
I knew it wouldn't take long for some lawyers to try to use the new
law as a cudgel against community groups. Lo and behold, they have.
The case involves
construction of the swank new St. James apartments at Seventh and Walnut
Streets.
Throw the bums out
The Society Hill Civic
Association and the Preservation Alliance are challenging the developer's plan
to preserve the facades of historic buildings that are part of the apartment
town project.
Lawyers for the
developer went into court in December, seeking to have the civic association
and the alliance thrown out of court. Their motion is pending.
This is just the
beginning.
Over the next few years,
lawyers will challenge the standing of every group that appears before the
Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Over time, this new law
will have the effect of taking civic and neighborhood groups out of the
business of trying to regulate zoning and development in their own communities.
And I'm not
talking just about citywide groups, such as SCRUB, the Preservation Alliance,
the Clean Air Alliance, etc.
As the St. James case
proves, lawyers will use the new law to deny standing to civic associations in
the neighborhoods where the projects are planned.
It's no surprise
that passage of House Bill 1954 has had a galvanizing effect on civic groups in
Philadelphia.
More than 20 have joined
to challenge its legality and are planning a suit, focusing on the stealth way
it was enacted.
Let's try this
I say, God bless them
for their effort, but a lawsuit could take years.
There is another way.
Just get the legislature
to repeal the offending section of the bill.
Most Philadelphia legislators
said they were completely unaware of the amendment when it came before them -
in dawn's early light, with dozens of bills being voted on.
There's reason No. 1.
There were never any
legislative hearings held on the issue. No debate on the
merits of the idea. Besides, what business does the legislature have
changing Philadelphia's City
Charter, which contains the language on standing? Anyone up
there ever hear of home rule?
Reasons No. 2, 3 and 4.
"It's unwise for
the legislature to fool around with the City Charter. It tends to make a
mockery of the home-rule concept."
That quote comes from
State Rep. Mark Cohen of Philadelphia, who has
drafted a bill to repeal the amendment and is circulating it among his
colleagues.
Every House member from
Philly - Democrat and Republican - should sign on as a cosponsor.
It would send a message
to the rest of the legislature that Philadelphians want this to be a local
issue.
And we don't
like being mugged.
Posted on Fri. Nov. 26,
2004 Philadelphia Daily News
A BILLBOARD COVER-UP
LEGISLATURE LAUNCHES SNEAK ATTACK ON CITY
THEY OUGHT TO be ashamed
to call themselves representatives
of the people.
The state Legislature
surely didn't represent the will of the people when,
in secret, in the waning hours of its session last week, it passed a law that
removes the right of taxpayers to make the city enforce its own zoning laws.
Some background: For
years, the city's Zoning Board routinely ignored a 1991 law that limits the
number and placement of new billboards in the city. Then an advocacy group, the
Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB) began to win court challenges to
zoning decisions - and the billboard industry lost what had been a virtual
guarantee to place what it wanted where it wanted. (And
it no longer could count on being able to dot Philadelphia's landscape
with lucrative "wall wraps" that cover whole buildings.)
Rather than obey the
law, or even revisit it, they - and their agents in government - tried to
prevent SCRUB and other community groups from going into court at all to
challenge not only billboards but other projects.
And tried, and
tried: Three years ago, when City Council passed a law that would limit the
right to sue only to "aggrieved parties" who live 500 feet from a
project, nearly every community group in the city protested. Mayor Street
vetoed it. Two years ago, state House Speaker John Perzel
tried to sneak a similar amendment onto a House bill. It too was defeated. The
will of the people on this one is crystal clear.
But
last week, in one of those classic sneaky moves that have made
the Legislature infamous, they tried again. Someone - no one will own up to it,
which ought to tell you something - tacked on a similar amendment to House Bill
1564, which would allow the city of Philadelphia to raise
its maximum fines from $300 to $2,300. It passed.
No matter how much the
city wants and needs to raise its fines, Gov. Rendell should veto House Bill
1564. SCRUB and other community groups have been urging citizens to call
Rendell's office (717-787-2500) or e-mail him (governor @state.pa.us)
to urge him to do so.
It's an cheap smackdown of democracy to pass laws in secret, without
hearings. Someone in Harrisburg must
represent the people. It's not going to be the Legislature.
So, Governor, you're it.