http://tags.library.upenn.edu/tag/philadelphia+city_plannig PennTags Feed http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/14023 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/14023 Posted on Fri, Jan. 12, 2007<br />Changing Skyline: Zoning board thumbs its nose at laws<br />By Inga Saffron<br />Inquirer Architecture Critic<br />In the marbled corridors of Philadelphia's government, he is often invoked by nickname, sotto voce, with a touch of grievance: Lord Auspitz. In the sunny hearing room, however, it's always Mr. Chairman.<br />The gentleman in question is David Auspitz, the powerful head of the city Zoning Board of Adjustment. When the voluble Auspitz likes a project, he's not shy about letting his colleagues know. Just recently, he gushed about the glassy 23-story Americana, a condo building proposed for Old City by Yaron Properties. Despite one member's warnings about allowing a high-rise in a historic neighborhood, the board gave the 268-foot tower a green light.<br />There's just one, not-so-little hitch: The legal height limit in Old City is 65 feet. It's been that way since 2003, when City Council passed, and Mayor Street signed, a law to control the incursion of skyscrapers into a neighborhood that includes Christ Church, Betsy Ross' house, and a rich collection of cast-iron buildings.<br />