By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer
“No strings attached.”
Those were the words used by Mayor John Street’s chief of staff, Joyce Wilkerson, on Monday to describe Neighborhood Transformation Initiative funding recently promised by the mayor for the demolition of buildings on the 130-acre Byberry site.
The money would be a loan, not a grant. Therefore, its use on the former Philadelphia State Hospital, at Roosevelt Boulevard and Southampton Road, would not force redevelopment of the site into controversial mixed-income housing, Wilkerson told the Northeast Times on Monday.
By latest estimates, it will cost in excess of $15 million to level more than two dozen abandoned, asbestos-filled buildings on the site of the former mental institution.
“(The NTI) is a pool of money that could be loaned, not granted, into the project that could speed up the process,” Wilkerson said. “We’ve got this money sitting around. Why not use it?”
Wilkerson’s tune sounded distinctly different than the one reported in daily newspapers following Street’s Feb. 3 NTI announcement at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. In his remarks, the mayor reportedly identified Byberry as one of seven proposed mixed-income residential and commercial developments.
The proposal calls for 2,100 new homes and apartments at those seven locations, the mayor reportedly said. The other sites are in Logan and Brewerytown, along with the Cecil B. Moore home-ownership zone in North Philadelphia and the Capehart development in South Philadelphia.
The inclusion of Byberry, however, was both surprising and disturbing to many folks involved in efforts to redevelop the site privately, including Somerton Civic Association president Mary Jane Hazell, City Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.) and state Rep. George Kenney (R-170th dist.).
The idea of government-subsidized housing is in direct conflict with the community-backed plan of market-rate 55-plus homes, a corporate office development and “green” space. More than a year ago, Hazell said, the mayor showed support for that plan when he met with her and other SCA members to discuss the property.
“He agreed (our plan) would help keep older people in Philadelphia and give younger people an opportunity to buy here,” Hazell said.
Hazell, O’Neill and Kenney say that government-subsidized housing is not the way to go in an area described by Street’s own 110-page NTI plan as a “stable” residential real estate market.
With relatively low interest rates and the city’s 10-year real estate tax abatement for buyers of newly built homes, Somerton is an attractive market, they say. The latest U.S. census figures indicate that it is one of the few areas of the city that is gaining population.
“There’s no reason this has to go into blight and NTI money when the private sector is very willing to come in and build houses and work with the community,” O’Neill said.
The councilman doesn’t think the Byberry project fits into NTI’s broader mission of pumping redevelopment dollars into the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. He suspects that Street was trying to use the existing Byberry project to give the controversial $295 million NTI program a public relations boost.
“I think the (NTI) program loses credibility when you set out and describe a philosophy and then you depart from it when you want to make an announcement that has a lot of money in it and a large number of houses,” O’Neill said.
Demolition and redevelopment aren’t the only goals of NTI, Wilkerson explained. In less-blighted neighborhoods, the initiative is designed to address quality-of-life issues like tree trimming and code enforcement. The Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP) in the 6th and 10th councilmanic districts is tied to NTI.
On Monday, Wilkerson said that the idea of the city loaning money for Byberry demolition arose in “conversations” between Street and officials from the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation.
“We would loan money to PIDC and PIDC would do the demolition,” she said. “That’s been the sum total. We said, ‘This is a tool we have that might help.’”
Ironically, the city has no claim to the Byberry ground at the moment, anyway. It’s owned by the state.
PIDC, a city-funded but independent entity promoting local economic development, has agreed to buy the ground, but the deal must first be approved by the state legislature.
Kenney has repeatedly said in recent months that he won’t introduce the necessary bill until he is certain that the community will be protected from unwanted redevelopment. Talk of mixed-income housing was not reassuring to him.
Kenney spoke to Street briefly at a Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce function last Friday.
“I said I still have some concerns with doing that (residential) piece. I think he said he’s looking to invest some city money to help PIDC clean it up after they get it,” Kenney said.
According to the legislator, the state doesn’t intend to foot the bill for demolition. Meanwhile, PIDC officials have said that they are looking for some funding from Harrisburg.
Kenney said he’ll continue to hold up Byberry legislation until he gets more details about the demolition arrangement and redevelopment conditions.
“It’s going to be a city-state partnership, whatever goes on there,” he said.
The issue was expected to be the primary topic of discussion at the monthly meeting of the Somerton Civic Association last night. The meeting ended too late for inclusion in today’s editions. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com