High-Rise Surprise

On The Scene: "Barnes Tower"

by Doron Taussig

on the scene

Sometimes it's good to look back and see how yesterday's debacles turned out. It was about a year and a half ago when the building then known as the "Barnes Tower" was first introduced to residents of Spring Garden. We say "introduced," and not "proposed," because the Barnes never really was proposed. Neighbors noticed a posting on a Parkway property currently occupied by a Best Western, announcing the arrival of a 47-story luxury condominium.

Outraged, they wondered how the developers failed to consult them; a community meeting then drew 500 furious residents; and state Sen. Vince Fumo, whose now-for-sale mansion sits where the new tower would cast its shadow, warned, "This community has enough funds to litigate this for the next 20 years."

The strange thing: Barnes' developers had actually done everything by the book. It was just that, unless a project required a zoning "variance" (the Barnes did not), our inane development process didn't provide for input from the community or the City Planning Commission. So the Barnes became a symbol, in high-minded circles, of the need for zoning and planning reform.

Fast forward to Oct. 11: A posh PR event in the Best Western lobby to unveil plans for a new, 34-story "Parkway 22" (the Barnes Foundation objected to the original name). Fumo's out of the equation, but other neighbors seem satisfied. No protests. No angry quotes in the paper.

How did this happen? Sadly, the city's development process wasn't reformed. Rather, the Spring Garden neighbors appealed to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Chairman David Auspitz accepted a case he technically shouldn't have (the Parkway project was appropriately zoned), and demanded that the developers and neighbors compromise — a demand he had no legal authority to make. Still, it worked.

The sides worked out a plan for a 35-story building, and since they were going before the board anyway, the developers applied for useful variances. The end product, most seem to think, is a vast improvement.

"The entire process was completely distorted and broken down," says Gregory Heller, a planner with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Coalition, "and what you ended up with was a better building."

As for fixing the planning process, there's still a ways to go. But Janice Woodcock, the city's new planning chief, says she's committed to reform, and, says Heller, the planning community has a new focus: "Basically, what came of [the Barnes project] was discussion when before there was none."