I decided to do just that.
Last week, I went to a special meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA)
to explore how the Exton-based firm wants to apply its concept to Philadelphia.
It turns out ALR has an option to purchase a derelict steam power plant on Ninth
Street just north of Vine Street in the northern reaches of Chinatown.
If you frequent the Vine Expressway, you've seen it: a tall, nearly windowless
building, topped by three tall and fat metal chimneys.
Company attorney Randall L. Airst explained to the ZBA that ALR wants to use the
plant's walls for two huge, flat billboards, totaling close to 10,000 square
feet. It wants to put five smaller billboards on the smokestacks.
Let me put it another way:
ALR wants to turn the old plant into what may be America's largest advertising
kiosk.
A Godzilla of a kiosk, towering 165 feet high, plastered with ads.
How can I describe the reaction of the crowd in the room? Try this on for size:
Remember the scene in Mel Brooks' classic movie The Producers, when Springtime
for Hitler opens on Broadway, and the opening number ends with a chorus of
dancing Nazis cheerily singing "Springtime for Hitler and Germany. . ."?
Then the camera pans the audience and it shows members frozen in shock - mouths
open, hands to their cheeks, shaking their heads - stunned by the tastelessness
of it all.
That's how the crowd reacted at the ZBA hearing.
Holding their noses
Folks from Chinatown were there, as were folks from the Callowhill Neighborhood
Association. They were not amused by ALR's idea.
Airst was appearing before the ZBA because it is the city board that grants
variances from the zoning code.
ALR needs these variances because its plan for the Ninth Street plant runs
counter to numerous code provisions. Let me count the ways:
It wants to place outdoor advertising in a zone that forbids outdoor
advertising. It wants the billboards bigger than allowed by law. It wants them
clustered in a way forbidden by the code. It wants to put them closer to
residential areas and schools than permitted. I could go on.
No decision was made at the hour-long meeting. Airst didn't get to finish his
presentation. The neighborhood opponents were not able to testify. A second
hearing will be scheduled.
Why let it rot?
I didn't have any luck reaching Airst or ALR president Susan Stann after the
meeting, though I did get a voice mail from Stann saying they were sending me
background material on the project.
At the hearing, Airst argued that this was a derelict building, vacant for a
number of years, with asbestos problems inside. It would cost up to $12 million
to renovate it; close to $3 million to demolish it and clean the site. Better to
clean and seal it and use it as an easel for billboards and wall wraps than to
let it rot.
Yes, this is a derelict building. It should be fixed up and a new use found for
it (though that seems unlikely), or it should be torn down. But using it as a
host for outdoor advertising artificially inflates its value.
Those billboards and wraps could bring in $1 million a year in revenue. Would
you want to give up that income? The ALR program doesn't cure blight, it
sustains it.
John Chin of the Chinatown Development Corp. made basically the same argument.
"If someone comes in and uses the structure of a building to generate money
through advertising, there is zero incentive to do any other kind of investment
in that property," he said.
So, thank you, American Land Recycling, for your exciting idea for "bringing
outdoor graphics to blighted communities." And may I suggest you stuff it.