Bridesburg/Kensington/Richmond

Next up in casino siting process

mgolas — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:54:06 -0400

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Holy Redeemer protest

Foxwoods process timeline

Oct. 10
By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly

The public will have at least three more opportunities to comment on the proposed location of Foxwoods Casino at The Gallery this month - and if last Thursday night's Chinatown meeting is any indication, those sessions will all be packed with passionate citizens.

* On Tuesday, a meeting similar to the one held in Chinatown took place at Jefferson University Alumni Hall, 1020 Locust St.

* On Oct. 21, the Planning Commission will consider and hold a public hearing on the creation and placement of zoning that would allow a casino to operate at The Gallery. This is called a Commercial Entertainment District.

* In late October, on a date yet to be set, a public forum to discuss casino design - particularly urban casino design - will be conducted at the city's request, but by organizations that are outside the government.

* On Nov. 1, City Council will hold a public hearing on the CED legislation. The time and place have yet to be determined. The unusual weekend day is an intentional attempt to make it possible for more interested people to attend.

Councilman Frank DiCicco will submit legislation to rezone the Gallery to a Commercial Entertainment District at Thursday's City Council meeting.

There is never a public comment period when legislation is introduced, spokesman Brian Abernathy said - that will come Nov. 1. (Read memo from Abernathy here)

The residents of Chinatown pleaded with DiCicco Thursday night not to introduce the legislation, but he said it was necessary to keep the State Supreme Court from getting involved - SugarHouse received its CED designation on Delaware Avenue from the High Court, which ruled that the city had been dragging its feet. This took power away from the city, DiCicco said, but by going forward with a process, elected leaders and officials will get a say.

The submission of legislation starts the review process of the proposal by City Council and the Planning Commission, and either body could say no, Abernathy said.

This CED will be different from the one created for the riverfront casino sites. Some tinkering is still happening, Abernathy said, but two differences are parking and set-back requirements.

The waterfront site is not well-served by public transportation and required many parking spaces. Market East is a public transit hub. And The Gallery has adjacent parking lots. There will still technically be a parking requirement, Abernathy said, but Foxwoods would likely not have to create additional parking spaces to meet it.

There will also be no setback requirement. For one thing, The Gallery is an existing building, Abernathy said. But even if it weren't, "in Center City, a setback doesn't make sense. We want to maintain an active street" with buildings nestled right up to the sidewalk.

Officials from Foxwoods and the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which leases the Gallery, are still working on their development plans for the casino, Deputy Mayor and Planning Commission Chairman Andy Altman said. It may not be ready by the Oct. 21 Planning Commission meeting, Altman said. "The plan doesn't have to be ready" because the discussion will be limited to the CED legislation and placement.

The late October public forum is being put together by incoming Planning Commission executive director Alan Greenberger - even though he doesn't officially start the job until November. He could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon, but Altman said the forum also will take place with or without the designs.

"It will be more of an open forum looking at design issues and other examples from other locations," he said. "We want to educate ourselves and the public" and examine what kinds of design and planning issues should be taken into consideration, what can be learned from other places that have urban casinos - such as New Orleans - and what changes are happening in casino design.

The input and ideas that come out of that meeting - and the other public forums - will be used to help guide the Planning Commission and City Council in what it looks for from Foxwoods and PREIT, Altman said. "It would also be good for Foxwoods and PREIT, who could apply what comes out of these meetings to their designs."

Another round of Council and Planning Commission consideration and associated public hearings will begin when those designs are in hand, and when those hearings begin is dependent on when Foxwoods and PREIT have plans to submit, Altman said.

"Both the Planning Commission and City Council have to approve the plan of development. We still have ample opportunity to determine it isn't appropriate," Abernathy said. Foxwoods could also decide the Gallery won't work for them.

Foxwoods officials have said they would consider another alternative if this one doesn't work out, but they would have the legal right to go back to the site they still own on the river - something the city does not want.

Terry Gillen, special advisor to Mayor Nutter, said that at the Gallery site, Foxwoods and the city are at "the very beginning" of the process, so there will be many discussions before any decisions are made and any permits given.

At the Columbus Boulevard site, Foxwoods would need only one additional permit, highway occupancy, before it received a building permit - the last permit needed prior to the start of construction.

The city's other proposed waterfront casino, SugarHouse, also needs a highway occupancy permit - plus a federal permit from the Army Corps of Engineers - to get a building permit, she said.

Contact the reporter at kelliespatrick@gmail.com

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Oct. 16 / By Kellie Patrick Gates Public will have more opportunities to comment on the proposed location of the Foxwoods Casino at The Gallery.

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October 10, 2008

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Onion Flats Opening Reception

andrewg — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:50:02 -0400

Start: 10/03/2008 - 5:00pm

End: 10/03/2008 - 8:00pm

Start: 10/03/2008 - 5:00pm

End: 10/03/2008 - 8:00pm

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Thin Flats Opening Reception The nation's first LEED-Homes Platinum Certified Residential Duplex project Friday, October 3 6-9pm 145-151 W. Laurel Street info: johnny@onionflats.com

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Port Richmond/ Fishtown Art-Music Fest

andrewg — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:41:54 -0400

Start: 09/27/2008 - 11:00am

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A meeting of the minds when we all gather for the First Annual Arts & Music Fest. Sponsored by Portside Art Academy and The Green Rock Tavern, starts at noon. 10 bands, food, drink and activism. Sounds good, right?

Location: Lehigh Avenue and Aramingo Avenue

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Pulaski Park Picnic and Fishing Tournament

mgolas — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:41:34 -0400

Start: 09/27/2008 - 11:00am

End: 09/27/2008 - 7:00pm

Start: 09/27/2008 - 11:00am

End: 09/27/2008 - 7:00pm

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PULASKI PARK ON THE DELAWARE RIVERFRONT
Allegheny Avenue and the Delaware, Port Richmond, Philadelphia

PICNIC AND FISHING TOURNAMENT

Saturday, September 27, 2008, 12 NOON –8 P.M.

Fish fry and potato pancakes at lunch hours: 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. by Johnny Brenda’s Tavern

Music by Pawel Ostrowski and DJ. Maritime Singalong by participants with guitar accompaniment

Fishing Tournament will be held between 2 PM and 6 PM
Judges: Bridget K. Allen, Professional Bass Angler
Bob Volker, Bridesburg Bait and Tackle, 215 289 8599
NOTICE: Please bring your own equipment. Bait will be available for purchase, but free for all children. Prizes will be awarded in adult and children (under 15) categories. All adults must have a fishing license. A $5 donation to the Friends of Pulaski Park is requested.

Ending with PABA meeting to discuss park development
For more information contact Regina Gorzkowska 215 563 6669
Sponsored by Pro Arte Associates, Friends of Pulaski Park,
Polish American Business Association and merchants, and
in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

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Casino designs do not work

mgolas — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:48:47 -0400

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Aug. 11

By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly

     Philadelphia's future waterfront would be better off if the two planned casinos were built elsewhere, a PennPraxis report ordered up by the mayor and released this morning states.
     But if SugarHouse and Foxwoods are built along the Delaware River, the report outlines changes to their designs that would make them a better fit.
     These include:
     • Dividing the currently proposed wide, rectangular buildings into narrower, taller structures - for Foxwoods, this would translate into two smaller, stacked gaming floors.
     • Reducing the amount of parking spaces by half and placing more emphasis on mass transit and pedestrian traffic.
     • Extending streets and green space through the casino parcels to provide more physical and visual access to the river.
     • And moving up the casinos' timeline for the building of non-gaming uses so that condominiums, restaurants, shops, and other street-level businesses open early on.
     PennPraxis Executive Director Harris Steinberg emphasized in an interview this morning that while these steps would yield improvement, they are not offered as a compromise.
    "It pushes the envelope, it significantly alters their current site plans, but in the end, we conclude it does not go far enough to make them fully compatible," he said.
     Despite alterations to the current plans, the buildings would still be too big, with far too much space dedicated to parking cars, he said - even cutting the number of parking spaces by half would still leave each casino with a garage 1.5 times the size of the largest one in Center City.
    If the casinos were to be built with the modified designs and most or all of the parking were moved to remote sites away from the waterfront, that would be a good start toward making the casinos compatible with the vision, he said.
     The report was based on a three-day workshop with a team of experts from around the country. Mayor Michael Nutter asked Praxis - the practical arm of Penn's School of Design - to explore whether the proposed casinos could be built in a way that would mesh well with the Central Delaware Vision, a plan for extending the city's urban grid and creating public access to the waterfront that Praxis gleaned from a long series of public meetings and workshops.
     (Although a letter sent from the mayor's office to several state political leaders seemed to indicate that Praxis was also charged with exploring alternative sites for the casinos, that was not part of the assignment. The city's planning department is looking into that.)
     Terry Gillen, senior advisor to Mayor Nutter on economic development and his casino point person, said that the report provides specific reasons why the casinos don't work at their proposed waterfront locations, and that's exactly what the mayor needed.
    "He needed explanations for why the site isn't good, so that the public, and the folks across the state understand there are some legitimate problems with the sites," Gillen said.
    Gillen said the "public" means "citizens and elected officials in Pennsylvania who may be concerned that we're not moving as quickly as they thought we would. We want them to understand why." It's not that the city is anti-casino, but that the sites are problematic, she said. "My sense is when they understand we have legitimate issues, that we didn't have the same zoning rights that many of them (other cities chosen for casinos) had, they are sympathetic."
   Both casinos have legal matters pending before the Supreme Court in which they argue, essentially, that the administration is intentionally slowing down the process to prevent the casinos from being built in their current locations.
   Representatives from SugarHouse and Foxwoods have repeatedly said they are not interested in changing locations.
    From the moment the mayor asked Praxis to do the analysis, the casinos and their supporters have looked on with skepticism. When both the mayor and Steinberg publicly said that it would be better if the casinos were built elsewhere, the casino interests asked, how could the study possibly be unbiased?
    Similar sentiments were expressed by some Friday.
    Steinberg said that when he previously said the casinos wouldn't fit on the waterfront, he was referring to their current proposed designs. And it wasn't just him, but a team of experts from across the country - including an expert in casino design - who determined that there was no way to redesign them so they would fit in completely with the civic vision.
     Foxwoods officials took the weekend to review the document. Eary this afternoon, Spokeswoman Maureen Garrity issued a short, written statement, calling the document unsurprisingly biased.
     "The conclusions reached by Penn Praxis only confirm that Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia was correct in our suspicion that the outcome was predetermined," the statement said.
     "This point was driven home when comments from Penn Praxis' experts support our assertions that traffic is a manageable issue reported in the media were nowhere to be found in the report."
     Garrity said the traffic issues comment relates to a July 30th entry in a Daily News blog called www.phillyclout.com in which one of the experts Praxis gathered for the pre-report brainstorming session said that the traffic the casino would bring was "manageable" and no different from a shopping mall.
     The Monday statement continued, "While Penn Praxis spent three days reviewing and revising our plans, Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia has spent nearly three years and more than $100 million developing and designing a world-class entertainment facility that will positively transform South Columbus Boulevard, making it more pedestrian-friendly, improving traffic flow and providing riverfront access to the community."
     SugarHouse spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker also said Friday she could not provide comments on the details of the report until SugarHouse's team analyzed it. Monday, she said the casino officials decided not to comment on the report.

     But on Friday, Whitaker had some overall comments.
     On resiting: "We feel we have the best location and we feel resiting is not possible," she said.
     On a redesign: "I want to disavow people of the notion that our design is bad. That's not the right assumption. We have been working on our design for two years, and it takes a lot more consideration than what it looks like. That's very important to us, but there were a lot of other factors we needed to consider. The intention of the Gaming Act is that is has to be large enough to generate revenue. It has to be functional, there has to be appropriate access."
    The only specific recommendation of the plan that Whitaker was willing to discuss was the parking issue. It would be great if people took public transportation, she said, but it is likely that once the lot was full, they would park in the neighborhood.
    That is the greatest fear of Maggie O'Brien, a long-time resident of Fishtown and co-founder of the pro-casino group Fishtown Action, aka, FACT.
    O'Brien couldn't believe it when told that the study suggested that even cutting the parking in half would not be enough to make SugarHouse casino fit in with the neighborhood.
    A reduction in parking or a switch to remote parking wouldn't get casino customers to walk, take public transportation, ride their bikes or use a shuttle service, she said. "People are going to drive their cars down there, and if the lot is full, they are going to park on the damn street, which is exactly what we don't want them to do," she said. "The study doesn't look at reality."
     On the other side of the public opinion equation, CasinoFree Philadelphia co-founder Daniel Hunter said the conclusions of the report were inevitable. "What PennPraxis announced today was obvious to the rest of us for quite awhile - casinos don't fit into the civic vision for the waterfront," he said.
    O'Brien didn't see the point of redesigning SugarHouse because she likes the current design - she thinks it would make for a beautiful building, and she imagines herself sitting with a mixed drink on the riverside deck one day.
    Hunter doesn't see the point, either. No change in form would make a casino tolerable, he said, because he takes issue with the casino's function.
    While the study provides details and renderings of what both casinos would look like if the ideas generated by the study group were put in place, it is far from enough to build on. The changes would require "a complete redesign" he said.
    That doesn't come cheap.
    "Architects, engineers, all those people come back to the table," Whitaker said.
    When asked if the city might offer money to cover the cost of a redesign, Gillen said she couldn't go there yet. "I don't want to get into the detail of next steps or negotiations about what needs to happen," she said. "Right now, the city wants a little bit of time - not much - to look at the report and to consider our options." Gillen said this would happen within weeks. "I hope this will lead to a conversation with the casinos about design and the site issue," she said.
    A meeting during which Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Vince Fumo, Rep. Dwight Evans, Mayor Nutter and the casino operators are to discuss the relocation option is expected to soon take place.
    Officials from both casinos have pledged to attend. But the casino operators have been frustrated by the effort to get them to move. Spokeswomen for both SugarHouse and Foxwoods have said that the casinos did not make the rules, they have only followed the procedure set up by the state, which established the number of slot machines and approved the locations.
    Steinberg said his concern is not about the function of the casinos, but their current form, and that the lessons learned from the workshop could be applied to any large building.
    He agreed that some of the design elements were out of the casinos' control, for example, the state-mandated number of slots and American casino industry standards hamper Foxwoods and SugarHouse, he said. And that's part of why they can't be made to fit properly with the waterfront vision.
   A casino that offered smaller numbers of stations for more varied types of gambling - more of the European model - could actually work within the framework of the Central Delaware vision, he said.


    Contact the reporter at kelliespatrick@gmail.com

Home Page Summary

UPDATE: Foxwoods comments on report. Praxis concludes mega-size plans fail to fit civic vision for waterfront. <a href="/files/Report_Full_080708_rev.indd_.pdf" target="_blank">full report</a>

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August 11, 2008

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Richmond Power Plant

mgolas — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:56:46 -0400

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Richmond Power Plant

The property, just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge, is not within Philadelphia Park's 10-mile exclusionary zone. It was first mentioned as a possible casino re-site after legislation was proposed that would restrict casinos in Philadelphia from being within 1,500 feet of neighborhoods, schools and churches. While it is still talked about as an alternative to the present SugarHouse site, remediating contaminents such as asbestos would be a major hurdle for development here.

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Kimmel Center Civic Feedback Session

andrewg — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:31:51 -0400

Start: 04/14/2008 - 6:00pm

End: 04/14/2008 - 8:30pm

Start: 04/14/2008 - 6:00pm

End: 04/14/2008 - 8:30pm

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DUE TO OVERWHELMING ADVANCE RESPONSE, REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CLOSED. COPIES OF THE PRESENTATIONS AND FEEDBACK FORMS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE AFTER THE EVENT. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

This marks the next round of public input in the Kimmel Center Public Space Project, organized by PennPraxis and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and sponsored by the Kimmel Center to develop ideas on how to further enliven the building's public spaces.

The Civic Feedback Session will give citizens the opportunity to view initial design concepts developed for the Kimmel public spaces and provide feedback in response to the ideas that will help enrich strengthen the work.

Design students from University of the Arts and University of Pennsylvania will present their ideas, all of which grew from the Design Principles developed out of the public forums held in January. The Principles will serve as the basis for the public dialogue.

6:00 -- registration

7:00 -- presentation in the Perelman Theater

8:00 -- discussion in Commonwealth Plaza

9:10 -- design panel in Perelman Theater

9:30 -- end

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Army Corps: We won't exclude tribes again

KellieP — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:48:24 -0400

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April 1

By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finished investigating its Philadephia District's exclusion of Native American tribes from a federally required historic review process.

Its conclusion: The oversights were accidental, and they won't happen again. No blame was assigned and no penalties levied. "Our focus is going forward," said Philadelphia District spokesman Khaalid Walls. "We are confident that going forward, federally recognized tribes will be included in the process."

When asked if the investigation, which was done at the district, regional and national levels, drew conclusions about how the accidental oversight occurred, Walls said it did not seek to do so, only to determine how to prevent a recurrence.

When asked what steps have been taken to make certain Native Americans whose historic lands are now part of the Philadelphia District are notified about future review processes, Walls said, "We're in communication with them now, and we've exchanged contact information. We have an ongoing dialogue with them now. That is something that wasn't there before."

The appropriate tribes, including the Delaware Nation - also known as the Lenape - and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans - will be contacted whenever a historic review process is required, Walls said, and in other cases when applicable.

Historical look at SugarHouse site
The investigation was prompted by the Philadelphia Corps' failure to include The Delaware Nation in the on-going historical evaluation of the proposed SugarHouse casino site, which is required because SugarHouse seeks a permit to build into the Delaware River.

Delaware Nation Cultural Preservation Director Tamara Francis became involved in the historic review process after she was contacted by local historians intent on preserving the history of the SugarHouse site. She contacted the Corps, and was included as a consulting party in February. Other consulting parties had been on board since December.

In addition to contacting the Corps, Francis also reported the situation to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation - the federal agency which oversees the National Historic Preservation Act and also serves as the appellate body when consulting parties are displeased with the process or results of a review.

Francis could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but has previously said that she was confident, based on her communications with the Army Corps, that the problem had been resolved. She also said she wanted the Corps to "be held accountable for their actions over the past couple of decades." See previous story.

More digging
The Delaware Nation and the other consulting parties who have advised the Army Corps of Engineers in the on-going historic review of the SugarHouse Casino who have submitted comments all agree that more archaeological digging should be done before the project continues.
The physical archaeology work done on the site by A.D. Marble, SugarHouse's consultant, has not been broad enough in scope, they say, and the prior historic research that helped guide the shovels was also greatly lacking.

At stake, say the local history buffs, archaeologists, Native Americans and neighborhood activists, is an opportunity to learn much more about local and national history, and the people who lived here before there was a Philadelphia or United States.

"The stories that may lie hidden beneath the ground on this seemingly unassuming plot of ground can reveal much about locally and nationally significant themes," wrote Douglas Mooney, president of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum. "The unique and rich history of this site tells us a great deal about pre-contact habitation in the Philadelphia area, early contact and interaction between Native Americans and early European settlers, colonial settlement of the area, the development and rise of Philadelphia as a major shipbuilding center and port, and the emergence of the city as a urban metropolis that came to be known as the “Workshop of the World”."

In addition to their comments, the Corps will also consider guidance offered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which is recommending more digging around the site thought to be British Fort No. 1, and the general public. Click here to learn about the on-going public comment period.

SugarHouse spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker said Tuesday that no further work will be done at the site until casino executives receive guidance from the Corps which recently heard from the Historical and Museum Commission.

She would not comment on the consulting parties' submissions. "We will respond to the comments of the consulting parties through appropriate channels," she said. "We are preparing our comments in response, and they will be submitted (to the Corps) shortly."

And the British Fort ... ?
Historians Torben Jenk, Ken Milano and Rich Remer - researching and responding together as the Kensington History Project - previously brought attention to British Fort I, a Revolutionary War fort and barracks located on the site. Their voluminous submission largely leaves information about the fort to their previous emails to the Army Corps, and highlights new findings they say point to the possibility of other intriguing finds from the site. These include Batchelor's Hall - submissions, and instead offers maps and documents pointing to the possibility that the place where SugarHouse wants to build was once home to a learned society called Batchelors Hall, a social club which in 1729 boasted Philadelphia's first garden of medicinal herbs, and of which botanist John Bartram was a member. It is also possible that some of John Fitch's early steamboats were last docked at or near the site, and remains could still be found, they say. And evidence could be found of Philadelphia's role in the whaling industry.

"Yes, Philadelphia had a Spermaceti Whale Oil Works built atop an eighteenth-century shipyard, built atop a British Revolutionary War Fort, built atop Native Indian implements.
"All the enterprises have significant archaeological potential and are worth researching. The Spermaceti Works represents an unknown chapter of Philadelphia’s contribution to the great whaling history of America. Why wasn’t it looked for?" the submission reads.

Environmental issues
Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, wrote that more digging could uncover the historical edge of the river, and that findings there would hold not only historical, but environmental significance. "In order to understand and plan for an environmentally sound future, we really need to understand the ecological history of a site," said Riverkeeper Network Deputy Director Tracy Carluccio, who assisted with the report.

Knowing where not only where the river's edge was, but where the historic boundaries of the riverside ecosystem and floodplain stood, can determine which lands should be restored to their natural state, Carluccio said. This is not only important for the animals and plants that live in, on or near the river, she but for people, too, she said, as this riparian environment acts as a sponge that can soak up extra water and prevent floods and as a filter that helps with water quality.

Some local historians and history buffs have questioned the quality of Marble's work for months - especially after an early archeological report made no mention of the Fort's former location on the site.

In their consulting party remarks, Marble, Jenk, Milano and Remer dedicate pages to debunking Marble's work, listing scores of historical references that they say should have been consulted, questioning the accuracy of some that were, and even critiquing the credentials of Marble's employees.

Wrote Debbie King, vice-president of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association: "We believe that the extraordinary discovery of pre-contact artifacts so close to the surface would seem to indicate that there may be a treasure trove of such pre-historic materials waiting to be unearthed throughout the site, and not, as the applicant asserts, just in the small area in the SW corner, where coincidentally, the applicant does not intend to construct its buildings." Further along in her comments, she says "… the Army Corps could exercise its discretion to void the delegation of these activities to the applicant and its consultant, and that either a governmental agency conduct this work or that a truly independent private consultant could be engaged. This would go a long way to restoring the public’s confidence in the process."

SugarHouse has stood behind the ability and performance of A.D. Marble.

But the casino and some of those asking for more digging have long been skeptical of each other's motives.

Some of the consulting parties are also members of organizations that have publicly stated they oppose SugarHouse's proposed location - this includes the NLNA.

Others - including Jenk and Mooney - say they don't care if SugarHouse goes up on the site, so long as all the history is dug up first.

The Delaware Nation does not believe that enough work has been done at the site, nor are they satisfied with the information presented in Marble's latest document.

"I do not believe there is enough Aboriginal cultural information present in this report," wrote Francis in her comments to the Corps. "I recommend that more work be put into this and the draft be reworked to reflect this part of Philadelphia's cultural history properly."

Francis wants more of the history of her people included, and she also said that more information is needed about other tribes who once convened at the site.

She also criticized Marble for writing that the investigation was done in accordance with federal and state laws that protect cultural resources. "How can that be included when the native tribes were not consulted?" she asked.

Meanwhile, some of the consulting parties believe SugarHouse has been cutting corners on archaeology so that history doesn't get in the way of the casino. But Whitaker says SugarHouse will, in fact, do whatever the Corps says it needs to do in order to preserve the history of the site.

Flexible deadline
Technically, the deadline for consulting parties to submitting comments was March 7, but Army Corps biologist James Boyer, who is running the process, accepted comments through March 11, when he began some time off. The consulting parties who had not filed comments as of then were advised to file copies directly with SugarHouse, if they had any. These include representatives of the Philadelphia Preservation Alliance, the Philadelphia Historical Commission and two Native American Tribes, the Delaware Nation and the Mohican Nation.

The Delaware and Mohican representatives were added to the list of consulting parties significantly later than the others.

Army Corps spokesman Walls said the penalty for missing the deadline was simply that SugarHouse, the Corps and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission would have less time to review comments.

To reach the reporter: Kelliespatrick@gmail.com

Read the consulting parties' comments:

Home Page Summary

Investigation determines tribes are now safe from exclusion. Advisors say more searching would yield significant historical finds at Sugar House.

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Publish Date

April 1, 2008

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Nutter revokes SugarHouse license

mgolas — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:21:13 -0500

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Jan. 24

By Matt Blanchard
For PlanPhilly

Mayor Nutter’s Commerce Department today revoked a key license that would have allowed SugarHouse Casino interests to build on 12 acres of submerged riverfront land.

The “riparian lands” license was originally issued in November by Street administration commerce director Stephanie Naidoff. But at a 2:30 p.m. press conference on Thursday, Nutter said that decision was “based on certain fundamental errors” and “an abuse of discretion”.

Among several such “errors”, Nutter said the city had failed to adequately assess the economic and social impacts of casinos on surrounding neighborhoods.

“This is not your garden variety development,” he said. “There is very little experience across the country with a development of this kind … A legitimate review will ask ‘What are the real costs? What are the real benefits?’”

Further, Nutter said the license had been “rushed” at the tail end of an exiting administration.

“There’s a credibility-of-the-process question here, about how we do business in Philadelphia,” he said.

SugarHouse has 30 days to file an appeal for a second, expanded hearing before the city commerce department. The 12 riparian acres represent more than half the casino’s proposed site on the Fishtown waterfront.

Anti-casino activists applauded the move.

“I’m profoundly relieved that we finally have a mayor who appears to be making decisions on the merits,” said Ed Goppelt, author of the political blog Hallwatch.org.

Sugarhouse will fight

Sugarhouse, however, looks ready to resist. So far, the casino has won two rounds before the state Supreme Court. A statement issued by SugarHouse CEO Greg Carlin on Thursday suggests the casino will fight Nutter’s move.

“We fully expect the City, regardless of a change in its administration, to honor all of its contractual obligations,” Carlin wrote. “We have been advised by our legal team that the City's action to rescind our submerged lands license is contrary to law given the pending litigation surrounding that license.”

Former commerce director Naidoff, too, defended her decision to grant the license.

“We used our best judgment and carefully considered,” Naidoff said. “I think the opinion will stand for itself.”

Nutter’s acting commerce director, Duane Bumb, saw it differently.

“The city had not reviewed submerged lands for 20 years,” said Bumb, who had been deputy commerce director under Street when the license was issued.

“It was a little-known process involved here, and that probably should have caused us to be more cautious,” Bumb said. “We hurried it more in a way that was helpful to the project,” he said, than it may have been to other concerns, such as the community.

A legal tangle

If Nutter’s move succeeds, it may preempt a pending yet another State Supreme Court case.

When the Street Administration issued the license, it appeared to buck an assumption that riparian lands are controlled by the state, not individual municipalities – and state legislators joined with the Philadelphia City Council in filing suit to stop the license.

The Street administration, however, produced a 1907 law granting the city some level of control over submerged riparian lands. Judges are preparing to decide whether that law applies in this case, but Nutter said yesterday the issue is “moot.” While defending the city’s right to issue such licenses in theory, he said revoking this particular license renders the pending court case irrelevant.

It remains to be seen whether the courts agree.

Where will it end?

With the casino battle now sprawling across several domains – red-bellied turtles, Revolutionary War archaeology, state courts, zoning law and local politics – one might wonder which way the battle is trending.

Anti-casino activist Hillary Regan said her side is upbeat, with the solid backing of local politicians, and an ongoing campaign to lobby City Council.

“It’s the right climate to win,” she said.

Frank DiCicco’s legislative aide, Brian Abernathy, said he was encouraged to see Nutter’s concern for the river wards, and commitment to open, public government.

As to where it will all end, however, Abernathy sounded a note of resignation.

“Everything’s going to end up in court,” he said, half-joking. “It will all funnel down to a series of court cases, no matter what we do.”

Nutter’s sticking points

Nutter outlined about six reasons for revoking the Sugarhouse riparian license, explained to varying degrees:

- The city should have considered whether a casino is an appropriate use for riparian rights.
- The Sugarhouse project approved by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission was substantially different from that originally approved by the state Gaming Control Board.
- The commerce director’s decision to grant the license was rushed, with only one public hearing
- The public and the General Assembly “expect” state control of riparian lands
- Wetlands mitigation concerns were not answered
- The license was issued at the end of an outgoing mayor’s term

Nutter declined to express a strong personal opinion about the future of casinos in Philadelphia, saying only that he was “not a fan” of either riverfront site. Neither did he say whether Sugarhouse ultimately deserves to receive a riparian license.

“We are not finally deciding this particular matter, but inviting Sugarhouse into a hearing,” he said, adding later: “This is about process and procedure.”

Home Page Summary

"New" Commerce Department reverses stance on riparian rights for casino company, calls prior approval "abuse of discretion".

Source

Written By

MattB

Publish Date

January 24, 2008

Abstract

Trump, Penn Treaty towers closer to reality

mgolas — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:55:12 -0500

Bio

Body

Dec. 20

By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly

Two Delaware River waterfront developments have moved closer to approval while the State General Assembly simultaneously told the Philadelphia Commerce Department to mind its own business.
The Senate and the House have approved bills granting the right to use riverbed lands - also called riparian lands - to Donald Trump's VTE Philadelphia, which plans to build Trump Tower Philadelphia on Pier 35 1/2, and NCCB Associates, which plans to build Penn Treaty Tower on Pier 53. Language in both bills changed in the Senate, so the House will need to take concurrence votes after the holiday recess, but the bills are expected to pass.
This legislative process is the way riparian rights have traditionally been granted in Pennsylvania. But in November, the Philadelphia Commerce Department gave them to SugarHouse Casino, after the casino's attorneys found a 1907 law that they said gave the Commerce Department that right, and the city solicitor agreed with that assessment.
This angered Rep. Michael O'Brien and Sen. Vince Fumo, who did not intend to introduce a riparian rights bill for SugarHouse without an agreement between the casino and the neighborhood associations - something that is far off, at best, since many of the associations have united to fight the casinos. But it also grabbed the attention of other legislators from across the state, as many of them also have riparian lands within their districts.
Earlier this month, the House unanimously passed a resolution asserting that the ability to grant riparian rights rests with the legislature. And both of these bills do the same. "The general assembly hereby affirms its existing, sole and exclusive authority to consider and specifically authorize the conveyance of any title, easement, right-of-way or other interest in common-wealth owned lands," they read in part.
Both Fumo and O'Brien have pledged to appeal the Commerce Department decision, and O'Brien said the language in the bills would put a finer point on the legislature's position for the judges.
The bills are also a way to assert that it’s the General Assembly that gets to say how much riparian rights should cost. Both go along with a Department of General Service's recommendation that riparian lease holders pay $5 per square foot of riparian land, but the bills also tack on an additional fee.
VTE and NCCB would each also have to pay $1 for each square foot of their proposed buildings. This money would be split, with half going into the state's general fund and the other going to Philadelphia's Commerce Department to be used to implement the Central Delaware Waterfront vision plan. This plan was developed by PennPraxis over the past year, after much public input. PlanPhilly.com is affiliated with PennPraxis and covers the waterfront visioning as well as other planning and design topics in Philadelphia.

While there's a development plan in place, the city doesn't have extra money laying around to make it happen, said Brian Abernathy, aid to City Councilman Frank DiCicco. "The idea is to provide additional capital funding for public spaces - things like parks, walkways, or a public boat launch," Abernathy said.
The city administration would decide what projects to fund, Abernathy said. "But they would have limitations - it would have to be similar to what PennPraxis has proposed."
O'Brien said the intent is that every riparian bill for properties along the Central Delaware would include a fee to fund the plan. Each fee would be decided individually, however. Trump's tower includes a public park at the end of pier, and NCCB Associates will provide lighting and a first-floor, public restroom for Penn Treaty Park, he said, so they are already giving something to the public and the $1 fee reflects that.

Home Page Summary

State General Assembly tells Philadelphia Commerce Department to mind its own business regarding riparian rights. Pier 25 <a href="/node/2451" target="_blank">news</a>.