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Planning Commission may approve SugarHouse Casino today
By Ed Goppelt
Tuesday, 05/22/07
(1179850205601)
The City's planning and approval process for the construction of the SugarHouse casino, previously stalled, may move into high gear today. Based on conversations with local lawyers, Hallwatch believes that the Philadelphia City Planning Commission could vote as early as this afternoon on whether to approve the SugarHouse Casino's official Plan of Development.
Many believed that this could not happen until City Council passed an ordinance defining the boundaries of a special casino (CED) district for SugarHouse. However a close read of the Commercial Entertainment District (CED) legislation suggests that the Planning Commission has the legal right to approve a Plan of Development if the district boundaries have simply been proposed to Council, rather than adopted by Council.
In fact the Planning Commission communicated proposed CED boundaries to City Council on February 22, 2007. According to his staff, Councilman DiCicco refused to introduce the legislation, but the Councilman's refusal is meaningless legally. The CED legislation, of which the Councilman was the prime sponsor, states "the owner of any lot within a proposed or adopted Commercial Entertainment District may submit a proposed Plan of Development to the Commission." (Sec. 14-403(1) of the Philadelphia Code).
Hallwatch was unable to confirm whether SugarHouse has already submitted a formal development plan to the Planning Commission. However, in this 3/14/07 email, the Casino said that it intended to do so.
"We will be formally submitting our CED zoning documents to the PCPC on 3/26/07," SugarHouse engineers told their counterparts at the Philadelphia Water Dept. If SugarHouse did indeed submit its plan on 3/26/07, it would have been automatically approved after 45 days of inaction by the Planning Commission on May 10, 2007 according to the CED legislation.
Philadelphia Planning Commission Meeting to review Casino Legislation and Sugarhouse proposal
Tuesday, May 22 at 1pm
Free Library Auditorium
19th and Vine