Nutter's clean sweep on zoning

Mayor Nutter replaced five last-minute Street administration appointees yesterday - including Sharif Street, the former mayor's son - as part of a comprehensive shake-up in the city's zoning and planning apparatus.

Throughout the mayoral campaign, Nutter said improving the city's management of growth and development would be among his priorities. His early days in office have borne that out.

On Thursday, Nutter announced his picks for the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Yesterday, he selected six members for the Planning Commission and named five representatives to the Zoning Code Commission.

All told, Nutter has appointed 16 zoning and planning representatives, and only one is a Street administration holdover.

Just as significant as the housecleaning was the timing. Nutter has hundreds of appointments to make, and roughly 60 different boards and commissions to attend to. He chose to announce zoning and planning first.

"The mayor is looking at all boards and commissions, which all serve important purposes. That said, zoning has historically been challenging for the city, and the sooner you can begin to address some of the most challenging issues, the better," said Nutter press secretary Doug Oliver.

Few would argue that zoning and planning were not a priority for the Street administration. The former mayor did not get around to naming his five appointments to the Zoning Code Commission - which was created last summer to overhaul the outdated zoning code - until his final days in office.

Although the Street appointees appeared qualified, their last-minute nature and the fact that the mayor's son was among them led many in the Nutter administration to grumble. Oliver, however, said Sharif Street was not given special scrutiny.

"No individual was singled out, and no consideration was given to who appointed who and when," Oliver said. "The only question was, which individual from the mayor's perspective was best suited to carry his vision forward."

In a brief interview yesterday, Sharif Street said he respected Nutter's right to name his own appointments, and noted that the mayor had called him to explain.

"He told me he'd been giving thought to these appointments for some time, and said he'd already made up his mind about who he wanted prior to realizing I was going to be a member," said Street, a real estate attorney with the WolfBlock firm.

Now that new leadership is in place, Oliver said, work can begin on overhauling Philadelphia's approach to development.

The Planning Commission has just begun the long process of drafting a new comprehensive plan for the city, the first in nearly 50 years. The Zoning Code Commission is not much further along on its massive job of overhauling the zoning code.

Taken together, the documents are meant to articulate the city's broad vision for growth (the comprehensive plan) and provide the detailed regulations that are to help that vision come to fruition (the zoning code).

There's also the job of making the Planning Commission a more robust entity with a real role in city government.

"It's been forgotten in many ways. It hasn't had the clout or the power to do a lot," said Natalia Olson de Savyckyj, an urban planner appointed by Nutter to both the Planning Commission and the Zoning Code Commission.

Olson predicted that the new faces and Nutter's emphasis on solid planning practices would help the commission reassert itself.

In addition to the Zoning Code and Planning Commission appointments, Nutter yesterday named Debra Wolf Goldstein, president of Conservation Matters, to an ex-officio position on the Fairmount Park Commission.

Planning Commission

Pat Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council, AFL-CIO. Eiding is the only Street administration holdover.

Alan Greenberger

, architect and principal at MGA Partners.

Bernard Lee

, real estate lawyer at Wolf Block.

Natalia Olson de Savyckyj

, urban planner for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Nilda Iris Ruiz

, president and chief executive of APM Inc., a Latino-based health and community development organization.

Joe Syrnick

, president and chief executive of the Schuylkill River Development Corp.

Zoning Code Commission

Judith Eden

, a zoning attorney in private practice and former zoning board member.

Natalia Olson de Savyckyj

(Planning Commission).

Guillermo Salas Jr.

, cofounder of the Hispanic Association of Contractors and Enterprises, a nonprofit economic development corporation.

Sam Staten Jr.

, business manager and political director for Local 332 of the Laborers Union and a former member of the zoning board.

Daniela Voith

, architect and principal at Voith & Mactavish Architects L.L.P.

Fairmount Park

Commission

Debra Wolf Goldstein

, president of Conservation Matters L.L.C.