City planners and lawyers are re-tooling proposed legislation that would allow animated and electronic billboards and building wraps along a section of East Market Street, from 7th Street to 13th Street.
As a result, a Rules Committee hearing on the bill that was slated for this morning was rescheduled - date to be determined.
The legislation, first proposed by First District Councilman Frank DiCicco, but in this go-round jointly introduced by DiCicco and at-large Councilman James Kenney, aims to liven up a mostly dead part of town and through fees charged to the sign owners, raise money to rehab properties that are in bad shape.
“At night, from 12th Street east to 4th Street, Market Street is a dead zone,” DiCicco said Tuesday morning. “The core of our Center City – any center city for that matter – should not be closing its doors at 5:30 p.m.
DiCicco talks about the proposal.
Philadelphia Planning Commission Executive Director Gary Jastrzab and Commission Chairman and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Development Alan Greenberger both said last week that they support DiCicco's idea that some visual flash could help revive East Market Street, but they could not support the legislation as written.
Planning commission staff was concerned that the version on the table is written too broadly and could allow large, flashy billboards on just about any building in the commercial advertising district the bill would create – even the historic properties the bill specifically sets out to protect.
The issues “are not life threatening” DiCicco said, but everyone agreed that holding off on the public hearing for a few weeks is a good idea.
The hearing was still on the Rules agenda as late as last evening. Not knowing that it would be postponed so further refinements could be made, the planning commission voted to oppose the bill last week, just in case the current version moved forward.
DiCicco said he anticipated an amended version of the bill to be the topic of a hearing within several weeks. Meanwhile, he said, meetings with interested parties will continue. Among them: Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), the owners of the Gallery at Market East. Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District. Mary Tracy, co-founder of SCRUB, an anti-blight organization that fights the proliferation of billboards.
DiCicco said he doesn't want anyone to think his bill will create a Times Square kind of environment in Philadelphia. But he believes the fancier signs will attract new businesses, by allowing them to better market themselves if they locate in the corridor, and jazz up the existing space.
He thinks of the large, mostly-blank cement walls of the Gallery at Market East. They would look so much better, he said, if they were adorned with something more interesting to look at.
Reach the reporter at kgates@planphilly.com.
Comments
I'm so tired of seeing Mary Tracy's name. First of all, is SCRUB an anti-blight organization, or an anti-advertisement organization? Because they are two completely different concepts, often at odds. Second of all, why is this highly specialized group getting the same facetime as PREIT and Paul Levy? If something as abstract as SCRUB has a legitimate case in this, why isn't anyone from Chinatown involved? How about Jefferson? The Girard Trust? Macys? Lowes? Marriott? The PCC?These corporations and organizations have a vested interest in Market East. Mary Tracy claims a vested interest everytime she sees a way to sneak back in the news.
SCRUB has no interest in fighting blight. If they did, they would be working with City Council on a compromise to attract business to Market East, not playing contrarian to everything proposed by City Council. The corridor is already illuminated with halfa**ed signage. DiCicco wants to update that signage, make it better, and make Market East look like something 21st century urbanites and tourists want to shop in. If SCRUB even has a mission - which often I think is only to be a thorn - it's to stagnate Market East and preserve the blight that exists. I have never seen this "anti-blight" group clear a block of abandoned row houses, clean trash from vacant lots, clear a wall of grafitti, or involve themselves with anything reliated to urban blight. I've only seen them attack corporations interested in investing in our city.
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
However, when I see the blank walls of Market East I see storefronts without doors (that is what I see). A design process that looks to current and potential users of Market Street as decision-makers and customers and desinging solutions for them seems to be a far more democratic solution, one that will lead to better ROI (return on investment), for everyone but Steen and DiCicco's other friends.