And we just live in it. Our powerful state senator is doing his part to make sure the new waterfront casinos reach their full garishness potential (not to mention being able to build out over the river at little cost):

Fumo’s amendment also appears to set no practical limit on the gross floor area of the Philadelphia casinos. In the case of Foxwoods, the limit would be 7.9 million sq. ft. or slightly less than 3 times the size of the King of Prussia mall at 2.8 million square feet.

Fumo’s amendment sets a gross floor area limit of 6 times the lot size, but in a novel twist counts both land and any river the casino owns for calculation purposes. His amendment also helpfully provides a mechanism for riverfront casinos to acquire the approximately 500 ft. chunk of river adjoining their properties (the so called riparian rights).

The City zoning code, by contrast, permits a gross floor area of four times the lot size and only counts dry land. In the case of Foxwoods, the casino will have 16 acres of land and, per the terms of Fumo’s amendment, could easily and inexpensively acquire another 14 acres of river.

Fumo’s amendment would also permit casinos to go into the billboard business, posting advertising for unrelated products, whereas under the City’s zoning code the signs would have to be related to the casino in some way.

Because the amendment allows casinos to count adjacent property for the signage calculation, a casino that wanted even more signage could obtain the right to do so simply by acquiring adjacent property (see the definition of associated area and Section 1506.1(B)(4) of SB 862).

For example, if the proposed Foxwoods casino were to acquire the Riverview Theater complex, it would be entitled as a matter of right to erect additional signage equivalent to 5 ½ highway sized billboards (1,313 ft street frontage x 5 sq. ft.=6,565 sq. ft./1,200 sq. ft.= 5.5 highway billboards).

The State House of Representatives will probably vote on Senate Bill 862, including Fumo’s new zoning code for Philadelphia casinos, sometime this week.

You can send a fax to your elected officials here.