Philadelphia's Planning Chief Has Big Job Ahead

"Early last month - two months after Mayor Street appointed Woodcock to the $144,000-a-year top planner post - City Council's Law and Government Committee approved a package of bills that also would make her head of a new 29-member Zoning Code Commission to rewrite the city's land-development plan. A related bill would overhaul the Planning Commission, giving it more time for land reviews and reports to Council.

If approved by Council, the bills, which require City Charter changes, would go on the May 15 primary-election ballot for voter approval.

Woodcock left the private sector to work for the city in February 2004 as project director in the city's Capital Program Office, where she oversaw improvements to the Fairmount Park system.

Woodcock said she was surprised when Street named her head of the Planning Commission, charging her to "make sure you get the waterfront plan right."

Two months later, the Council zoning package came out of committee, putting Woodcock in the center of an issue that is certain to be part of this year's election campaigns for mayor and Council.

Little in Woodcock's background would have foretold her apparent eagerness to be at the center of a big-city political maelstrom."