Daily News | Darrell Clarke’s nearly 25 years on City Council shaped how Philly was built
financed by the construction tax or the consolidation of the city’s zoning and land-use agencies into the new Department of Planning and Development with a seat in the cabinet. For some critics, these initiatives showed the limits of running mayoral-style initiatives out of a Council president’s office.
“It was a good strategic move to coordinate all the different agencies that have a say in how properties get developed,” said one former administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “But it didn’t make the planning and development process more coherent. They didn’t ensure it actually worked and was more powerful than the whims of 10 Council people.”District Council members have long been given deference in decisions over zoning and disposal of vacant public land in their territory,. During Clarke’s tenure, that power has become far stronger. Prerogative is possible only if all Council members support the preferences of the district Council member who represents the area in question. Clarke has strengthened the practice by privately discouraging members from poking into their colleagues’ neighborhoods and rebuking those who meddle in his own district. The results can be seen in policy disputes where administration-led efforts were blunted, such as the repaving of Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia, which isAn administration-led proposal to narrow the five-lane speedway and offer more protection for pedestrians and cyclists was frustrated after Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson responded to some constituent complaints in his district. Now only the eastern half, in Mark Squilla’s district, accords with the original plan. Nutter’s zoning code reform effort, meanwhile, has been undermined by a series of overlays that changed the rules in parts or all of Council members’ districts. The increasing complexity has created a lot of work for land-use lawyers anddecentralized model of policy-making“Under [Clarke], Council members are accustomed to a great deal of power within their districts,” said Christmas of the Committee of Seventy. “[Next year] returning members will expect that same deference.” For Clarke, that’s not a bad thing. The empowerment of Council means neighborhood groups can push back against dramatic change and win concessions, he said, and it forces different factions to the table for dialogue. He sees that as a more balanced approach to governing, both between interest groups and branches of government. “The only way you get those broad-based initiatives implemented, you got to have conversation, you have to have dialogue,” Clarke said. “All these folks on both sides of the equation lobby for their interests. So you can either not get anything done while you continue to argue and fight, or you can come up with a compromise.”
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