Sept. 29
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly
Changes in the way the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment operates could be on the way, but it’s unclear if they would take effect before the zoning code itself is rewritten next year.
Developers, planners and zoning attorneys, fatigued with what they call a slow-moving agenda at the ZBA, have been complaining for weeks about dozens of hearings that have been postponed for up to three months because of the ZBA’s inability to have a quorum. Currently, it takes the presence of four of the six board members to make up a quorum.
Fran Burns, commissioner of the city’s Department of Licenses & Inspections, which overseas the ZBA, said this week that the problems – though overstated – are being reviewed, and that in general she supports proposed tweaks.
“We have heard it as a challenge, but I wouldn’t generalize it to say that it is stopping development in the city,” Burns said. “We do realize that frustration is an issue.”
Burns said that city revenues from building permits were down 35 percent in fiscal year 2009 compared to fiscal year 2008. But she added, “We’re not cavalier to some of the things that are happening. We are very sensitive to the impact of a lack of quorum, and [that it’s] noticeable.”
Frustration levels seem to have been rising since July, when board members were absent because of overlapping vacations, an extended personal leave for one board member and a prolonged death in the family of another.
Postponements and a lack of quorum are “not unusual,” said ZBA Chairman Susan Jaffe, in an interview with PlanPhilly earlier this month. “We have waived a quorum when it’s a non-disputed case.”
A quorum cannot be waived for any case that is disputed.
Jaffe, who also sits on the Zoning Code Commission, said that she has told Mayor Michael Nutter that she is on personal leave until “probably in October at some point.”
Earlier this month, Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced a bill that would reduce the ZBA from six board members to five – and reduce the number needed for a quorum to three. The measure says that the sitting L&I commissioner would serve as an alternate. Because it would change the city’s Home Rule Charter, the bill would require voters’ approval.
Burns, as the current L&I chief, is that sixth board member, and is called on to sit for hearings to make up a quorum. However, because of her heavy schedule, she’s often not able to substitute on a last-minute basis.
Several senior developers and zoning attorneys who are upset with the ZBA called the current state of affairs “dysfunctional,” but declined to comment on the record, stating that they have to appear often in front of the board.
“You need four of the five members for a quorum,” said Joseph Manko, a former interim ZBA member and a partner at Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, LLP. “I mean, 80 percent – that should be changed.”
Nonetheless, Manko said he believes the current state of affairs is only circumstantial. “I think it’s a bunch of separate personal issues” that caused the absences, he said. “It is a lot of work. But that kind of dysfunction is going to happen – it’s not just a ZBA thing.”
In a September 18 article in The Inquirer, Brian Abernathy, director of policy and public affairs for Councilman Frank DiCicco, said, “We've heard of a number of projects that have completely died” because of the delays. “Six months waiting for a zoning variance just isn’t appropriate.”
Along with Jaffe, current ZBA members are Lynette Brown-Sow, Peter Gonzales, Anthony Lewis Jr. and Carol Tinari.
When Nutter appointed Jaffe chairman in January of 2008, replacing David Auspitz, his opinion of the ZBA was well known.
In the fall of 2007, while running for mayor, Nutter had this to say about the agency: “It’s time to close the circus-under-the-big-top atmosphere and make land use decisions like grown ups.
“Currently, even the most minimal variance request requires a hearing in front of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The current backlog of cases results in a waiting time that can be months. This holding period makes projects more expensive — a cost which can derail worthy projects if it cannot be passed on to the end user. A public hearing is not the appropriate setting to decide on minimal dimensional variances.”
When Jaffe was appointed ZBA chair, she told PlanPhilly that she would like to introduce tools for zoning applicants that would provide a blueprint for adjusted or appealed zoning.
The big developers know what to expect, she said then, or at least their lawyers do. But most homeowners who seek the board’s approval for an addition, a sun deck or a swimming pool have never seen a hearing and have no idea what they’ll encounter. Given the city’s – and the board’s – reputation for wrapping things up in red tape, she said, that makes for a public that dreads the experience.
“I want people to feel that we are there to help them, to serve them, and that this is not to be an unpleasant experience,” Jaffe said, just a day after the new board’s first meeting. “We will try and make it a process that is not intimidating, but helpful for the citizenry.”
Burns said that the work of the Zoning Code Commission, where she is also a member, might have a bearing on changes now being called for, with regard to the “streamlining” of zoning decisions being recommended by outside hired consultants. But she said the structural changes called for in Clarke’s bill would be more immediately felt.
Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com.
Comments
II'm still very ill from the project Planning and ZBA approved on a chemical dump site in East Mt Airy.
Very bad zoning decisions and planning. The project, went bankrupt as you probably know and the city has allowed me to suffer for years with environmental illness and homelessness because of the impossibility of living in such a hazard. The city's failure to concern themselves with the safety of the adjacent neighbor has destroyed a life and affected my children and father as well. The chemical illness makes me want to die and the abuse this city has done to me makes me want to die. But you'll continue to ignore me and commit crimes against me. You should have stopped the project as soon as the Water Department ordered the contaminated dirt removed. The city purposely hid the facts of the contamination from me and my doctors even though they knew i was ill and had to go to the ER and was displaced on doctor's orders. Richard Redding of Planning knew because he asked to see my house a few days after I ended up in the hospital and had to leave in the middle of the night because I couldn't breath. The city should have taken matters into their hands then and demanded protection and a home for me and medical care. The city knew the land was contaminated and knew i was sick and kept it hidden and proceeded to allow and commit all kinds of abuses and violations against me. The city let little kids run around the street while contaminated dirt was being spilled all over. The ZBA knew the land was contaminated because when I filed a zoning appeal and presented evidence of an industrial history that was omitted on the zoning application, the developer's attorney admitted there had been an environmental problem. They said they cleaned it up- but they didn't go through proper procedures to clean it up and they never informed the neighbors about what was in their neighborhood. Later I found someone who used to work on the site when it was the construction company. . Maps and photos clearly show it to be industrial up until at least the 70's or 80's sometime when the company moved to Pompano Florida. The title papers that transferred the property over to the builders are signed by Joseph Anastasi. it was common knowledge that the site had vats of acid and hydraulic fluids and other solvents and oil and waste oil that was dumped and the fluids were always over flowing the vats and the guys would just sweep the chemicals right into the ground. Plus there is the additional environmental issue of the underground creek which makes for prime toxic plume conditions that have never been investigated. No off site protections ever considered. When the Masonry Corp left for Florida, there was talk about developing it then but they realized they couldn't do it because the level of contamination was so high. These kinds of chemicals don't disappear and they are still there. This project rarely did anything correctly and were their own doom, so there is no reason at all to think they really got the place clean. Large tracks of it were not touched. According to people who used to dump into the vats , that area was not touched. The City of Philadelphia had a responsibility to see that it was cleaned up decades ago. The masonry corp is not short of money so there was no reason for the City to risk the health of the people by allowing a track of poison to lay there for decades. It was just illegal to let it stay there. Then City Council Donna Reed Miller and Ward Leader John Connelly (the 1st real estate agent for the project) and Ward Leader Vernon Price and Attorney to Tasco and head of Zoning at East Mt Airy Neighbors and Council candidate Derek Green pushed through this project . Vernon Price has lived here along time. it's unlikely he didn't know, plus it would have turned up on a proper environmental report. Then they purposefully maligned me while i am sick and homeless from their contaminated project and hid the environmental hazards from me and my neighbors. Never , at any point did they try to help me or protect me from harm even though they knew i was ill and they knew the land was contaminated. The banker inherited the problem when the project went bankrupt- in spite of all the rules and regulations they skipped over. The city, however, is hiding the history of the property from the banker and allowing him to sell it to innocent buyers without disclosure. Therefore risking the health of other people as well. Good job Philly. So you are going to continue to hurt people and refuse to do the right thing. You should have moved me in the beginning like I asked and you should have listened to me when I said there was something wrong and the project was all wrong. But instead of attacking the problem, you attacked me. I can't believe you're letting the banker take over and sell without telling him the history. Well, yeah I can, after all the criminal things you've done to me, this city is capable of anything. The city has allowed a huge dumped of construction garbage to sit on the site for months or maybe years now. It's right on top of the creek and it rains all the time and carries all that toxic construction debris stuff into the ground water and aqua fir. I bet they are not getting fines, yet regular citizens are getting fines for putting their trash out a day early. There is a lot to be cleaned up in this mess- a lot- messy politics- But the most important thing is to help me. This project harmed me badly and is still harming me. This city has purposefully abused me over and over again to hide their own crimes and I am not getting well.