The Tacony Civic Association, with the assistance of an anti-billboard activist group, has scored a legal victory in its efforts to thwart the spread of the towering ads in the neighborhood.
The civic group was pleased to learn it had received a favorable court ruling which overturned a previous decision that had permitted a billboard in the neighborhood.
The recent ruling by Common Pleas Court Judge Matthew D. Carrafiello reversed a September 2001 decision by the city Zoning Board of Adjustment, which had granted the Eller Media Co. a variance allowing the firm to erect a billboard at 6501 State Road, near Elbridge Street along the Delaware River.
The location is the site of the defunct Dodge Steel Co. plant, a well-known foundry that purportedly cast the William Penn statue that stands atop City Hall.
In its fight to prevent the billboard, the Tacony Civic Association enlisted the help of the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB), the city's leading anti-billboard organization.
SCRUB has opposed billboards in the city for several years. The non-profit group uses a 1991 city ordinance that specifies where billboards can and cannot be located in Philadelphia. It also employs a section of the zoning code that enables residents to file legal appeals of zoning decisions.
The process was nearly changed last year with the introduction of Bill 629, a proposal that would have enabled City Council to restrict such zoning appeals, but Mayor John Street vetoed the measure.
Earlier this year, SCRUB, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Resources Council, released a study which suggested that many of the billboards now standing in Philadelphia may lack the proper permits.
The study focused on the Tacony, Wissinoming and Bridesburg areas as a sample for the survey and concluded that 59 percent of the advertising signs in those neighborhoods had no city permits on record.
The recent court action was part of SCRUB's resolve to battle the proliferation of billboards.
"Tacony has taken a very strong position against more billboards going up in their neighborhood," said Mary Tracy, SCRUB executive director. "And we will support that position."
Members of the Tacony Civic Association were surprised, but not shocked, to learn that their community was home to a multitude of billboards. The neighborhood borders Interstate 95, and signs erected along the highway reach thousands of drivers daily.
"It's no secret that we're finding out about a number of Eller signs in our neighborhood with no permits," said Louis A. Iatarola Jr., vice president of zoning for the civic group. "These signs are a blight, and detrimental to communities."
The initial zoning board hearing when Eller Media sought the billboard variance had occurred nearly one year before SCRUB issued the findings of its study.
Incidentally, Tracy did not attend the March 30, 2001 zoning board hearing because she was in City Hall that day to testify against Bill 629.
At that zoning hearing, attorney Carl Primavera lobbied on behalf of Eller Media for a zoning variance to allow a 62-foot-tall sign at the State Road site. SCRUB attorney Ann M. Butchart represented the Tacony civic group.
According to documents obtained from the city Department of Licenses and Inspections, the former Dodge Steel property is owned by the Tacony Waterfront Association.
Transcripts from the zoning board hearing, however, list the property owner as East West Trade Partners Inc. Both firms have the same address, 3000 Atrium Way in Mount Laurel, N.J.
The Times was unable to contact either outfit for comment, and messages left for Dave McCarron, director of public affairs for Clear Channel Outdoor, the parent company of Eller Media, were not returned.
In seeking the variance for the billboard, Primavera told the zoning board that the property owners had endured a financial hardship because of an inability to turn a profit since purchasing the 18-acre tract in 1993, according to the hearing transcript.
Those financial problems, Primavera said, could be eased by the revenue generated from a billboard.
According to Tracy, the SCRUB executive director, billboards of the size proposed by Eller Media can generate $10,000 or more per month.
Primavera also called witnesses who said that the planned billboard met most of the requirements of the 1991 City Council ordinance. In particular, the billboard location would have exceeded the specified distance from other outdoor advertising, parks and recreation facilities, a school building or historical district.
But the site also would have put the billboard within 660 feet of a bridge that crosses the Delaware River - in this case, the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge - and thus did not meet all of the requirements of the law.
Despite that, the five-member zoning board decided to issue the variance for the advertising sign on Aug. 14.
SCRUB and Tacony Civic appealed that decision to Common Pleas Court, where Judge Carrafiello upheld the appeal last month.
Contacted on Monday, Primavera said an appeal by Eller Media is likely.
"We're surprised and disappointed at the judge's decision," the attorney said. "We were hopeful that the judge would affirm the zoning board ruling."
Tracy, the SCRUB official, doubts that the dispute is over, but she believes that the latest ruling bodes well for her organization and Tacony Civic if Eller Media makes the next move.
"You always want to think that the letter of the law will be upheld in the courtroom," Tracy said. "And it's always gratifying to me when it is, because that is not always the case at the zoning board. I think that if the zoning board stopped granting (variances), the billboard industry would stop asking for them."