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Existing Zoning Would Prohibit Any North Delaware Casino
By Catherine M. Recker, Esq.
Tuesday, 04/03/07
(1175608473428)
The Commonwealth, through the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and Sugarhouse Casino have shut their eyes to a local prohibition against siting a casino on North Delaware Avenue.
In the first legal challenge to Act 71 brought by Pennsylvanians Against Gambling Expansion, the Supreme Court unequivocally restored the right to control zoning issues to the localities in which the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) sited casinos. The Philadelphia Zoning Code at Chapter 14-1624 specifically prohibits venues along Delaware Avenue from Spring Garden to Lehigh Avenue which provide as their primary purpose for good reason; “entertainment of guests and patrons.” Moreover, the Zoning code prohibits restaurants, private clubs and nightclubs. In the late to mid 90’s Fishtown and Northern Liberties were plagued by the Delaware Avenue nightclubs which brought shootings and dangerous drunken behavior to our neighborhood.
The very heart of this ignored zoning provision is the City’s acknowledging the fragility of the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhoods in the zone of danger. By enacting this section of the zoning code, the City acknowledged what Sugarhouse and the PGCB refuse to—that the neighborhoods across the street from Sugarhouse in which thousands of people live will be severely impacted by the presence of that casino. Neither Delaware Avenue itself nor I-95 which is elevated at the Sugarhouse location provides a buffer to the homes on either side of the highway. Fully understanding this, the city made legislative findings that entertainment venues harm our surrounding communities by increasing crime, stating (the obvious) that the residents bear the brunt of the problems that begin at these establishments.
Act 71 required that the PGCB consider the public interest of the citizens of the Commonwealth. The PGCB needed look no further than Philadelphia’s local zoning code to discover a very clear description of the negative impact that venues that provide entertainment and alcohol have on our neighborhoods. Instead, the PGCB chose a site that the City had previously determined to be unsuitable for such a use, completely ignoring the real life experience of our local community. All the more troubling is the fact that the casinos propose to serve alcohol 24/7 in buildings that are one hundred times the size of the handful of nightclubs which caused so much destruction to our neighborhood prior to 2002. Upon completion, Sugarhouse will exceed 3,000,000 square feet of new construction. This can only mean the negative impacts we experienced prior to 2002 would increase exponentially with this casino.
The entire process was flawed. Not only did the PGCB ignore the city zoning legislation, but Sugarhouse failed to mention in its “local impact report” any of these documented negative impacts or the zoning restrictions applicable to its site. That is not surprising given that Sugarhouse presented to the PGCB, among other things, a perfectly fictional traffic pattern which ignored any physical impediments to its plan, such as nonexistent intersections and streets in Fishtown. In the PGCB’s “Suitability Report” discussing Sugarhouse, neither the “Location” section (which barely references the thriving residential community the City went to great lengths to protect) nor the “Zoning Status” section even mentions the City’s zoning restriction. In fact, that report refers only to a “Commercial Entertainment District” that has yet to be designated. Clearly, it was selective in its search for information.
It is not possible that Sugarhouse, which is owned and represented by lawyers, and the PGCB, which is made up of lawyers, could have missed Ch 14-1624. Especially given that they make a specific reference to proposed local zoning legislation. The State cannot be allowed to run roughshod over communities that have survived the nightmare of bad development along Delaware Avenue. To quote Karl Marx, history repeats itself, first as tragedy second as farce. Our nightclub tragedy was enough. We don’t need casino farce.
Catherine Recker lives in Fishtown, not far from the proposed SugarHouse casino. She is a partner at Welsh and Recker, a boutique law firm specializing in federal criminal defense work.