South Philly Review

Moments after the Philadelphia City Planning Commission unanimously approved Foxwoods' development and rezoning application Tuesday, casino opponents filed out of City Council chambers chanting slowly and deliberately, "Shame, shame, shame, shame ..."

"I think the City Planning Commission proved today they are a rubber stamp. They could have been so much more," Ben Boyd of Northern Liberties told the Review.

Mary Stumpf, from the 1200 block of Ellsworth Street, who was one of the more than 100 casino opponents in attendance, agreed with Boyd and feels the commission should have more of a concern in the riverfront's development.

"I'm very disappointed in the process," Stumpf said after the meeting. "It didn't seem to matter what rational reason the public presented for opposing the casino. It didn't matter how many very solid, sound reasons there were, they were going to do what they wanted to do and that's been apparent from the beginning of this process."

While most opponents left the room dejected, some hung around while Foxwoods officials held court with the press. "We're very excited at this time that the planning commission gave the approval to get this project before City Council," James Dougherty, general manager for Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia, said.

Born and raised in South Philadelphia, Dougherty was appointed earlier this month to his new post and spent 16 years of his career with the Sands Hotel & Casino and the Trump Castle Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., before joining Connecticut-based Foxwoods.

Now that the planning commission approved the development of a master plan of the site at Columbus Boulevard and Reed Street and its rezoning application, Council will have to decide whether or not to do the same when it convenes in September. The commision-approved rezoning would take the Foxwoods site to commercial entertainment district if approved by Council.

This comes in the wake of an April ruling by Council rezoning the parcel from commercial to residential in an attempt to stall the project, as previously reported in the Review. In June, Foxwoods asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to overturn the designation introduced by 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco. No state ruling has been handed down.

The planning commission delayed its decision in July in front of hundreds of casino opponents and proponents who packed The Free Library's Montgomery Auditorium because it said it needed more information from Foxwoods. That information, mainly traffic studies and mitigation plans, was presented at this week's session by Jeff Greene of Orth-Rodgers & Associates Inc., a transportation engineering and planning firm hired by Foxwoods. When Greene said 30,000 cars a day, 40,000 on Saturdays, could be expected in and out of the site, opponents in the audience grumbled loudly.

Many of those people got their chance to be heard during the public comment portion of the two-hour meeting with each person allotted two minutes to speak. Marie Hurley, of the 1400 block of Orianna Street in Pennsport, said the studies did not take into consideration traffic on Columbus during sporting events at the stadiums, nor the busy kidney dialysis and driver's education center across the street from the site.

"Am I wrong in asking these questions? I think they should answer these questions, not tell us there will be 30,000 more cars," she said to thunderous applause.

Just like July 17, the planning commission reminded those present the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board selected the SugarHouse and Foxwoods locations, not the city. Earlier this year, SugarHouse got the thumbs-up from the commission to proceed with its development plans in Fishtown. Moments before the commission handed down its Foxwoods verdict, commission member Patrick Eiding told the crowd, "There is going to be gaming in Philadelphia and gaming in somebody's neighborhood."