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Weiner charges
department with
misapplying redevelopment law County
Councilman Robert Weiner accused the Department of Land Use of
violating the redevelopment ordinance and said he will move to
reiterate Council's intent in enacting it.
Weiner also
indicated that he might challenge the provision in the Unified
Development Code which requires Council to approve major
land-development plans which the department says meet code
provisions by limiting its options to returning them to clarify
technical points. He said that "clearly violates separation of
powers" between the legislative and executive branches of
government. "We find ourselves in a legal straightjacket," he
said. Councilman John Cartier said he would support a move to
"clarify Council's intent," but cautioned that providing
incentives to encourage redevelopment of blighted sites
increases property values and broadens the tax base. The
ordinance "is not totally bad," he said.
At an open meeting
of the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred on
Nov. 10, Weiner zeroed in on the controversial rezoning of the
Pilot School property in his district as an example of the
department's granting a developer a profit-generating 'density
bonus' at a site which is currently attractive and being used
for a beneficial purpose. Nancy Hannigan, a member of the civic
association which fought the rezoning, said the department was
unresponsive to every point the group raised. "We could read
what was written [in the law] and Land Use would rule
otherwise," she said. Weiner, a lawyer, responded that the
only recourse was to challenge the rulings in court and that few
communities or civic groups have the ability to pay the large
fees that requires.
The controversial law "doesn't need amending [because]
everything we intended to do when we passed it is already in
there [but] the original intent is not being followed," Weiner
said. |