Zoning In On Philadelphia's Code

January 8, 2007

The new Planning Commission chief will seek public input as she tackles an overhaul of the city's byzantine regulations.

By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer 1/8/07

Architect Janice Woodcock remembers well her first development after arriving in Philadelphia in the mid-1990s.
It was a small housing project, nothing unusual, Woodcock said.

Then she went looking for the deed.

"It took four or five days, full time, just to try to get the deed. The deed wasn't recorded," Woodcock said.

Woodcock's anecdote could be matched by any developer who has recently worked in the city and tried to parse meaning from the 600-plus pages of the city's 1960s-era zoning code.

Now Woodcock, 47, has found herself in a position - executive director of the city Planning Commission - to do something at the same time political momentum seems to be building to tackle the thorny job of overhauling the zoning code.

"Sometimes I can pinch myself that I'm in this spot at this time," she said in an interview last week in her office overlooking the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Art Museum.

Woodcock said that, after the building boom of the last decade, now is an important time for Philadelphians to take stock of where the city is and where they want it to go.

She said encouraging that public discussion would be one of the most crucial parts of her job: "What we need is public input on the overall direction the city is going. After that, we write the zoning code."

A lot of eyes will be watching.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for her," said Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis, the University of Pennsylvania urban planning arm. The city hired Penn Praxis to work with Woodcock in creating a master plan for development of the Delaware River waterfront in Center City.

Steinberg called Woodcock "smart and tremendously energetic," comments echoed by others, such as Paul Levy, president of the Center City District, and architect Alan Greenberger, chairman of the Design Advocacy Group.

Early last month - two months after Mayor Street appointed Woodcock to the $144,000-a-year top planner post - City Council's Law and Government Committee approved a package of bills that also would make her head of a new 29-member Zoning Code Commission to rewrite the city's land-development plan. A related bill would overhaul the Planning Commission, giving it more time for land reviews and reports to Council.

If approved by Council, the bills, which require City Charter changes, would go on the May 15 primary-election ballot for voter approval.

Woodcock left the private sector to work for the city in February 2004 as project director in the city's Capital Program Office, where she oversaw improvements to the Fairmount Park system.

"I love the park and I use the park regularly," said Woodcock, an avid runner.

Woodcock said she was surprised when Street named her head of the Planning Commission, charging her to "make sure you get the waterfront plan right."

Two months later, the Council zoning package came out of committee, putting Woodcock in the center of an issue that is certain to be part of this year's election campaigns for mayor and Council.

Little in Woodcock's background would have foretold her apparent eagerness to be at the center of a big-city political maelstrom.

Woodcock grew up on her family's dairy farm west of Syracuse, N.Y., where "I ran barefoot through pastures and, for a summer job, drove tractors."

College, let alone architecture, barely crossed her mind, she said. Ultimately, she did go to college - St. Lawrence University - and in an essay for an economics course was asked to describe the relationship between a church and worshippers.

Woodcock said she wrote about the interior design and how it created an atmosphere of faith and prayer. Her professor, she said, wrote that "you should be an architect."

She earned a master's degree in architecture from the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning and came to Philadelphia, where she worked as an architect and planner.

Woodcock is married to Center City architect William Cheeseman and has a 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.

The influence of urban planners has fallen here as the public has become more cynical about developers and the effectiveness of the current zoning code.

Nevertheless, Woodcock leads an agency with a storied past.

Philadelphia's zoning code and master plan are part of the legacy of the late Edmund N. Bacon, the legendary urban planner who led the Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. Bacon, who died Oct. 14 at age 95, was responsible for much of the way Center City looks today.

But the Center City building boom of the last decade made clear just how badly the zoning code had aged. Notably, in March, residents of Spring Garden were stunned to learn developers had city permits to build a 47-story tower at 22d and Spring Garden Streets.

The developers of the proposed Barnes Tower had obtained the permits over the counter from the Department of Licenses and Inspections because, they maintain, a residential tower just short of the height of the City Hall tower complied with existing zoning.

"Right now, most of all our approach to development is reactive," Woodcock said. "We've come through several decades not having a lot of development, and the big concern was attracting development. We were caught suddenly a little flat-footed, not anticipating the demand for new residential homes."

Other critics are harsher. Brett Mandel, executive director of Philadelphia Forward, a tax-reform and good-government group, said the archaic zoning code leaves city residents and developers in the "worst of both worlds" and abets public corruption.

"We've reached the point where it seems that someone can't really build anything without doing some kind of deal," Mandel said.

Worse, Mandel added, the code drives away potential developers who don't want to deal with the bureaucracy, confusing rules and tortuous zoning appeals.

Though she does not doubt the need for "political will" to reform Philadelphia zoning, Woodcock said she was eager to be part of the fight.

If the legislation passes and Street signs it, Woodcock said she would start by having the new Zoning Code Commission get as much input as possible from residents.

"We need . . . some clear goals about what the city wants to be," Woodcock said.

Properly done, she said, the zoning code would encourage positive development and let residents and developers understand what can be built in a specific neighborhood. Zoning appeals, which are now needed for 40 percent of development proposals, should be necessary only for "hardship cases," she added.

Woodcock called it a citizen conversation long needed: "Without that up-front citizen engagement in our cause, I don't think a rewrite would do anybody any good. If you rewrite something that doesn't have the validity of a planning process and the backing of the public, it will just be changed all over again."