The legislative package that would authorize the construction of the 76ers arena on Market Street hit City Council in a fiery session Thursday morning. The bundle included the 11 ordinances and resolutions previously released by Mayor Cherelle Parker, as well as two additions crafted by the council member who introduced them all: Mark Squilla.
Squilla, who represents the district encompassing the proposed arena site, put forward a zoning bill that would create a new Chinatown overlay district bounded by Vine, 9th, Filbert and 13th streets. He also introduced a lengthier ordinance that would create an "arena services district" and an authority to manage it, with the aim of minimizing "negative impacts" on the surrounding communities, who have raised several concerns about the project.
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This bill defines the arena services district as the area between Spring Garden and Pine streets, and Broad and 8th streets. But what exactly would the authority running it do? According to the legislation, the body would have multiple responsibilities, including:
• Making improvements
• Maintaining cleanliness
• Commissioning studies
• Supporting small businesses
• Coordinating the delivery of services
• Developing plans to manage traffic and congestion
• Managing traffic and congestion
• Promoting safety
• Otherwise mitigating impacts of the construction and use of the arena
A board, consisting of five members nominated by Parker and appointed by City Council members, would oversee the authority. They would not be compensated. The authority itself, however, would be supported with money from the 76ers, paid to the city.
The authority would exist for at least 30 years, per the terms of the ordinance.
While the eight-page bill discusses the services rendered by the authority in mostly broad terms, it does detail one specific requirement. The authority would have to create a traffic oversight committee to come up with traffic management plans.
These proposals would not only address congestion but "encourage the use of public transportation" by Sixers fans traveling to the arena. They would be due during the pre-construction and demolition phase of the arena project, as well as during construction and operation. Representatives from the Philadelphia Police Department, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Delaware River Port Authority and the arena development arm would sit on the committee.
If the ordinance passes to create the arena services district, the authority would need to adopt its first traffic management plan 18 months later. A new plan would be required, at a minimum, every five years after that point.
Squilla told reporters Thursday that he wouldn't have introduced the legislative package "if I didn't think I could vote for it." It is unclear, however, how most of his peers on City Council will break.
The Save Chinatown Coalition, which protested the legislation Thursday, acknowledged that the arena services district "might address some nuisance issues." But the group said the bill would not sufficiently blunt the arena's "permanent harms."
"Councilman Squilla traded crumb for crumb and didn't get a single dollar more out of the developers," the coalition said in a statement. "He came up with different words for the same thing: sellout. This is not the solution it’s paraded to be."
This story was updated with a statement from the Save Chinatown Coalition.
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