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Contrasting expressions claim “Rules are rules” and “Rules are meant to be broken.”
Marconi and Packer Park residents have worked to uphold the former’s finality since mid-November, while a Cheltenham-based business owner has desired a variation on the latter’s meaning since mid-October, insisting that modernization often necessitates change. The parties have centered their pleas on the state of a 44-year-old billboard within the parking lot of Galdo’s Catering & Entertainment, 1933 W. Moyamensing Ave.
To promote their beliefs, the locals and attorney Stephen G. Pollock, representing Dominick Cipollini of Keystone Outdoor Advertising Co., Inc., will gather 7 p.m. Jan. 12 at St. Richard School’s Hall, 1826 Pollock St., for a public forum. The first will argue to leave the structure alone, with the legal professional set to say it must go in favor of a towering replacement. Their appearances will serve as preludes to Jan. 18’s Center City date with the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
“This will be an exercise in togetherness,” Barbara Capozzi, of the 1900 block of Hartranft Street, said Dec. 29 within a few feet of the free-standing double-face, non-accessory sign.
The president of the Packer Park Civic Association has led the outcry against modification of the 62-foot-high advertising aid measuring 14 by 48 feet. Cipollini, who obtained an exclusive billboard easement and agreement Dec. 31, 1992, is seeking a variance to erect a double-face, non-accessory sign containing digital and static sides that would result in a 90-foot-high product totaling 20 feet by 60 feet.
Capozzi became aware of the signage matter Nov. 18 courtesy of Mary Tracy, Center City’s Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight executive director, a 21-year-old coalition aiming to check billboard proliferation, so the frustrated figure took immediate action upon learning of a hearing scheduled for Nov. 23. Correspondence with former City Council President Anna C. Verna helped to secure a continuance, and the delay could assist Capozzi and her allies, as it will allow them to call on precedents for assistance.
With SCRUB’s activism proving fruitful, City Council in ’91 passed a pair of comprehensive sign-control ordinances, Tracy said. The legislation noted existing billboards could remain yet forbid alterations. It also declared future work could not occur within 300 feet of residential properties, within 660 feet of any school and within the same distance of an interstate’s entries and exits. The Marconi tool lies within the designated breadths of all the specified spots, yet it acquired non-conforming status, meaning its Aug. ’67 mounting spared it from demolition yet not from the ban on any sort of tinkering, the latter a fact Tracy said Cipollini definitely knew upon purchasing it the following year.
“We have little to gain by expanding billboards,” she said Friday.
To promote his client’s interests, Pollock filed a zoning application with the Department of License and Inspections. Among many contentions, he posits numerous barriers along the Schuylkill Expressway and Walt Whitman approach block views of the sign, the 2,400 total square feet for the proposed double-sided construction mark the least minimum variance possible given the property’s circumstances and conditions and other construction’s obstructive nature and “a literal enforcement of the provisions of the ordinance will result in an unnecessary hardship.” That final belief especially riles Tracy.
“There is no hardship at all,” she said, adding a November visit to the site intensified her wish to have the City prohibit digital signs, as she fears electronic messages threaten drivers’ safety.
As Philadelphia is aiming to become America’s greenest city, she noted her agency studied costs and determined digital billboards use 40 times more energy than typical placards.
“We must come to a point where we have to say ‘Enough,’” she said.
Tracy, Capozzi and other personalities began their crusade a full month after Pollock had his request refused Oct. 18, as L&I cited the aforementioned stipulations for adding billboards. He appealed Nov. 16, receiving a Dec. 14 hearing that Capozzi had halted until two weeks from now. The real estate maven hopes her history of success battling potential builders will work against Cipollini. Four years ago, she and Tracy defeated the Kinderman family’s notion to place similar signs by its business, Kindy’s Factory Outlet Store, 2900 S. 20th St. The factors that doomed Kindy’s plans could prove Cipollini’s vanquishers. If her newest adversary were successful, however, she fears her first foe might again apply for digital decor.
“Look at Philadelphia,” Capozzi said. “It contains so much graffiti and so many empty lots. Billboards are akin to both, as they all lead to an area’s decline.”
The present billboard offers a lesson on free speech and perhaps unintended diversity, as one side features an advertisement for the Franklin Institute’s dinosaur exhibit and the other promotes the Oasis Gentlemen’s Club. Though Cipollini owns it, Capozzi said many have believed Louis Galdo Sr., Galdo’s proprietor, oversees it. Galdo failed to respond to numerous inquiries on the signage matter, but Capozzi and other inhabitants within the Sports Complex Special Services District are more than making up for his silence.
Created 10 years ago, the district consists of four areas, with Capozzi heading District II. The billboard borders her expanse and Keith Franchetti’s District IV space, thus making its future an issue for two communities. Franchetti, of the 2900 block of South 17th Street, has engrossed himself in his first formal community battle because he cannot stand the thought of his neighborhoods’ aesthetics suffering.
“I remember telling my mother I would move to New Jersey and forget about this place,” he said of recollections of his area’s formerly lackluster identity.
He stayed and saw his territory thrive, evolving into a spot in which he feels vested. Cipollini has him committed to advocating for communal solidarity.
“Let’s see how he would like it if we were to put a sign in his neighborhood,” Franchetti said of the entrepreneur. “In the end, we have to ask if people like Cipollini are beautifying areas, and the answer is ‘No.’ In fact, they are taking away from them.”
Tracy sides with Franchetti, who has fielded questions from neighbors on home values, and has information to solidify gripes on considering a change to the Marconi location. Her agency issued “Prosperity: The Economic Impact of Billboards on Real Estate” during the summer, which concluded all Philadelphia real estate purchased within 500 feet of a billboard had values $30,825 lower than other properties. It added each additional billboard in a census tract decreases home values by $947 for all property.
“This city must understand the expansive need for beauty,” Tracy said. “So many people work to improve their homes. Shouldn’t they have palaces outside, too?”
Capozzi ranks this situation among the fiercest in which she has participated and deems communal opposition the key to earning a victory.
“It does not take money to fight everything,” she said.
Tracy has interacted with Cipollini before, defeating him on some matters and losing to him on others.
“We are seeking fairness,” Pollock said of the upcoming community meeting. “At the very least, we will end up agreeing to disagree.”
Franchetti certainly will be eager to continue countering.
“I want whatever children I may have to enjoy the community,” he said. “I’ll fight this plan bare-knuckled.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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