This is an interesting development. I absolutely liked the Stamper Sq development in any case, but this added benefit of that whole hooplah is pretty cool as well.

Take a look:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20...SPECIFIED.html

An excerpt:
Philadelphia planners get role in project design approval

By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
Who would have thought that yanking Philadelphia's city planners out of their 16-year-long politically induced coma would have been so easy? But it took just three choice words to set them on the road to recovery: "plan of development." Andrew Altman, the new deputy mayor for planning, slipped that deceptively plain phrase into an otherwise standard zoning bill that City Council approved this morning. The bill, sponsored by Councilman Frank DiCicco, was crafted to allow a controversial 15-story hotel-and-condo project, called Stamper Square, in Society Hill.


In the past, Council - operating on the I'll-pass-yours-if-you-pass-mine theory of governance - would have rubber-stamped the bill, and the project's developer would have been handed a zoning upgrade worth millions of dollars with no strings attached. Thanks to the new language, major zoning changes in Philadelphia now come with strings.

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New term of the day 1/24:
Electile Dysfunction: The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for President put forth by either of only parties in the 2008 election year.
http://www.votenader.org/index.html


5/22, because i'm feeling punny:
As the great Jedi English teacher was quoted in saying, "metaphors be with you."

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Old City: Suburban Paradise in the city. Only a couple of years away.