Morning Headlines: Why Restaurants in LOVE Park Isn’t Such a Great Idea

Darrell Clarke dreams big, but does it make sense?

Today the Daily News’ Jenny DeHuff takes up the question of Darrell Clarke’s … intriguing plans for LOVE Park. As Property author Sandy Smith noted when Clarke first proposed putting restaurants in the park to generate revenue, “We should take Clarke’s proposed design as the start of a path to a new and livelier LOVE Park, not as its final form…it could stand some refinement.

DeHuff notes that Smith isn’t alone in that assessment:

“Critics of the proposal agree that revenue-generating is necessary for the city to pay its bills, but not by way of building up what’s intended to be open space, something already lacking in Center City.”

Indeed, a park-land ordinance from 2011 requires that developers who build on existing open space replace it with equivalent open space elsewhere. (This ordinance is what stymied Temple University’s boathouse proposal, now a moot point anyway.) In this case, any new commercial developments at LOVE Park would have to undergo state and federal review.

In any case, would restaurants really be the answer? Mike DiBerardinis, commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation, told DeHuff:

“Our experience is that other concessions in the park indicate that although we could generate revenue to maintain the park, the idea of paying off a multimillion-dollar investment just doesn’t seem possible.”

Meanwhile, in other news….

Conshohocken church rising from its own ashes

Archdiocese cemetery lease seeking final approvals

Sale of old PAL building in South Jersey could fall through

East Passyunk is Philly’s 2013 Neighborhood of the Year

Former Union Trust is on the market