Rising from the muck and mire of the Pennsylvania Legislature comes House Bill 1954 - a turkey of a bill now sitting on the governor's desk, awaiting his signature.
I am having trouble finding out who hatched this ugly little sucker. No one, it seems, wants to claim patrimony. But what it does is easy to explain.
It severely limits the rights of people to challenge zoning cases in the city of Philadelphia.
It says that unless you are an "aggrieved party" to a zoning issue, you have no legal standing to fight it - and you are specifically forbidden to go to the courts to press your case.
And what exactly is an "aggrieved party?" Under state law, only someone who lives within 500 feet of a proposed project.
It's hard to understand the change unless you know the background:
This bill is aimed squarely at SCRUB, the anti-billboard and anti-blight group based in Philly.
For years, SCRUB has challenged zoning decisions that allowed new billboards that violated a 1980 city law designed to regulate the industry.
Some billboard guys are politically wired, so SCRUB lost most of its arguments before the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment, the group that hears zoning appeals.
But SCRUB has a stellar track record in the courts. Time and again, the Zoning Board approved the billboards, only to have the state courts overturn the decisions because they violated the law.
SCRUB killer
What to do? Unable to beat SCRUB in court, some in the billboard industry decided to deny SCRUB the right to go to court. (If you can't win, why not just change the rules?)
A bill to that effect was passed by City Council a few years ago, but Mayor Street vetoed it.
Two years ago, in another midnight session in the legislature, Philadelphia's own Rep. John Perzel, currently the House speaker, tacked the prohibition onto another House bill. The House defeated the amendment.
Last week, a similar amendment was added to House Bill 1954 during a late-night session on Friday and passed by the House and Senate without debate the next day.
Most legislators didn't have a clue what they were voting on. Numerous bills were whizzing then, as the legislature was trying to end its session.
Who was responsible for the amendment? I suspect Perzel, mostly because he has tried this gimmick before and it fits his preferred M.O.: a stealth amendment, done at midnight, with no chance for debate.
As of yesterday, I had not heard back from Perzel's office on the matter.
Collateral damage
In killing SCRUB, though, this bill causes a lot of collateral damage.
It effectively denies standing to all city advocacy groups on zoning disputes. It also forbids neighbors who live outside a 500-foot radius of a project to have their day in court.
To give an example, consider the plans by the Fox Chase Cancer Center to expand into (i.e. eat whole) Burholme Park in the city's Fox Chase section.
It's an issue that has attracted a lot of interest - not only among those who live next to the park, but also among those who use the park as a recreational center.
But if you live outside 500 feet of the park, don't bother to protest. If this bill becomes law, you won't have standing in this case.
It was the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, based on the notion that projects in one neighborhood can affect the entire city, that gave citizens rights in such cases. That has stood as a right for 50 years.
The legislature just took it away at 5 on a Saturday morning - via a stealth amendment, with no public hearings and no debate. Just like in a banana republic.
Fortunately, there is a remedy at hand that is simple and direct.
Gov. Rendell can veto this turkey.
And I encourage you to contact him and tell him so.
The governor's e-mail address is governor@state.pa.us and his office number is 717-787-2500.
Urge him to veto HB1954, also known as the Philly Zoning Turkey.