City Budget
Philadelphia City Council is urging the City Planning Commission to draw up a proposal that would grant the agency more control.
By Peter Crimmins
WHYY News, March 26, 2008
During a budget hearing Tuesday, Councilman Brian O'Neill asked Planning Commission officials to help resolve what in his opinion is a broken design review process.
"It we have to have an independent design review board like other cities have, and even if it slows the process down a little bit, I don't care," said O'Neill. "I want buildings that we can be proud of."
Currently, the Department of Licenses and Inspections reviews new development projects but O'Neill said that design is not the expertise of that department.
According to George Claflen, an architect with the Design Advocacy Group, the current system leads to bad planning. He gave the example of Waterfront Square, a condo development now under construction along the Delaware River.
"The most obvious thing missing there is a public access to the waterfront," said Claflen. "If we imagine a public continuum along the waterfront, it's going to bypass that development because it wasn't incorporated in the beginning."
The Planning Commission is expected to present a proposal to City Council next month.
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