Category Archive: Preservation News
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Murphy says eminent domain not a threat at present time
By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, April 3, 2002Without completely ruling out its use, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy said the city will attempt to implement the Plan C Task Force proposal for redeveloping Downtown without using eminent domain.
“We have not authorized eminent domain. So when we approach a building owner now, we will be negotiating with them amicably in attempting to come to a fair price without the threat of eminent domain there,” Murphy said Tuesday in his first public comments on the proposal. “We are ruling it out right now, but I can’t speak for the future.”The mayor also outlined a plan for moving forward with the task force’s recommendations and said he hopes to name a developer within two months.
The task force, made up of government officials and private stakeholders, unveiled a strategy for redeveloping the Fifth-Forbes corridor last month. The group had urged Murphy to go back on a November 2000 pledge not to use eminent domain, saying it would take too long to redevelop Pittsburgh’s tired retail core without using the controversial technique.
Murphy’s statements brought at least temporary relief to opponents of eminent domain, a legal tool governments can use to take property for a public purpose.
“As long as we’re not using eminent domain, I can support the plan,” said Patty Maloney, one of three Plan C Task Force members who signed a minority opinion against using eminent domain. She owns the Card Center on Wood Street.
Scott Bullock, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, said he was encouraged that “some progress has been made with the mayor,” but said Murphy did not go far enough in making his pledge not to use eminent domain. The Washington, D.C.-based institute has said it would defend any Fifth-Forbes property owner who wants to fight eminent domain proceedings.
“Mayor Murphy should pledge not to use eminent domain in the Fifth and Forbes area now and forever,” Bullock said. “Leaving the door open, even a little bit, will create uncertainty for property owners and will actually discourage investment in the area, because people will not know for sure whether the city will come after their property.”The task force was formed after Murphy’s plan, Market Place at Fifth & Forbes, unraveled in 2000. The mayor charged the 13-member group with forming a consensus on redeveloping Downtown. Among the chief criticisms of his first plan were its failure to preserve historic buildings, the use of eminent domain and what was seen as a limited housing component.
Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Mulugetta Birru, who will play a key role in any redevelopment plan, said it will be “very difficult” to get a developer to undertake the project without eminent domain.
“That’s the mayor’s commitment and, therefore, there is no eminent domain in place. All of us support his decision,” Birru said. “Eminent domain assures the developer we can get control of the properties. Now the question is whether or not we can find a developer to invest all that money and be willing to take the properties as we’re able to buy them.”
Without eminent domain, Murphy and Birru said, one property owner who holds out for more money can derail portions of the project.
City Councilman William Peduto said he would have supported using eminent domain in the plan.
“I see it as a tool that can be used when one person or one group tries to stop the will of the community or holds out for an unreasonable amount of money,” Peduto said. “If council gets to the point where we have to make that call, I hope the body will rely on common sense.”
Peduto said, however, that he felt the Plan C proposal was an improvement over the mayor’s original plan. He said he felt the expanded housing component and a proposed hotel would add the critical mass needed to support the district, and the Plan C blueprint made more of an effort to preserve historic buildings.
Challenges for the Downtown overhaul don’t end with eminent domain.
When city officials first began discussing Downtown redevelopment plans five years ago, the region was under-retailed. Now, with The Waterfront in Homestead, a new mall at Robinson Towne Center, the expansion of Station Square and plans for a new development between PNC Park and Heinz Field, the Fifth-Forbes district will have heavy competition, Murphy said.
Murphy said he envisions Fifth-Forbes being the Golden Triangle’s centerpiece, bridging the cultural district to other parts of Downtown.
“I think part of the challenge for a developer responding to this request for proposals is answering the question, ‘What’s the niche for this Downtown in the context of all the other investments taking place?'” the mayor said.
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The plan
Mayor Tom Murphy unveiled a five-point plan Tuesday for implementing the Plan C Task Force Downtown redevelopment proposal. He would not speculate how long it would take for the project to be completed.
Among the components of the plan:The city planning department will seek proposals from developers. Murphy hopes to name a developer within two months.
Once a developer is selected, the city will hammer out a financing plan. Murphy said it was too soon to tell whether that plan would resemble the one recommended by the task force, which called for a $360 million development funded mainly with $51.5 million in public money, $39.5 million in corporate and philanthropic donations and $264 million in private investment.
Begin an $8 million, city-funded infrastructure improvement program in the Central Business District, with a focus on reconstructing Forbes Avenue, Smithfield Street and Market Street.
Direct the Urban Redevelopment Authority to expand a grant program for restoring building facades, as well as create new loan programs to allow existing tenants and building owners to improve their properties. The URA would focus its existing loan programs on the Central Business District.
Begin an aggressive program to enforce city building codes in the Fifth-Forbes area.
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.
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Mayor: City will attempt Plan C without eminent domain
By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 2, 2002Without completely ruling out its use, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy said the city will attempt to implement the Plan C Task Force proposal for redeveloping Downtown Pittsburgh without using eminent domain.
“We have not authorized eminent domain. So when we approach a building owner now, we will be negotiating with them amicably in attempting to come to a fair price without the threat of eminent domain there,” Murphy said this morning. “We are ruling it our right now, but I can’t speak for the future.”The task force unveiled a strategy for redeveloping the Fifth-Forbes retail corridor last month. The group had urged Murphy back down from a November 2000 pledge to not use eminent domain, saying it would take too long to redevelop Pittsburgh’s tired retail core without using the controversial technique.
Murphy’s renewal of his pledge yesterday brought at least temporary relief to opponents of eminent domain.
“As long as we’re not using eminent domain, I can support the plan,” said Patty Maloney, one of three Plan C Task Force members who signed a minority opinion against using eminent domain. Maloney acknowledged that the mayor had allowed for some wiggle room to use eminent domain in the future, but said she was pleased overall with comments Murphy made during his 45-minute press conference Tuesday morning.
The task force was formed after Murphy’s own plan, Market Place at Fifth & Forbes, unraveled in late 2000. The mayor charged the group with forming a consensus on redeveloping Downtown. Among the chief criticisms of the mayor’s first plan were its failure to preserve historic buildings, the use of eminent domain, and what was seen as a limited housing component.
Murphy also outlined a five-point plan for moving forward with the task force’s recommendations. Among the components of that plan:
The city planning department will issue a request for proposals to interested developers.
Once a developer is selected, the city will hammer out a financing plan. Murphy said it was too soon to say whether or not that plan would resemble the one recommended by the task force, which called for a $360 million development with $51.5 million in public money, $39.5 million in corporate and philanthropic donations and $264 million in private investment.
Begin an $8 million infrastructure improvement in the Central Business District, with a focus on reconstructing Forbes Avenue, Smithfield Street and Market Street.
Direct the Urban Redevelopment Authority to expand a grant program for restoring building facades, as well as create new loan programs to allow existing tenants and building owners to improve the condition of their properties.
Begin a strict and aggressive program to enforce existing city building codes in the Fifth-Forbes area.
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.
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Old church to celebrate Easter at sunrise
By Treshea N. Wade
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, March 30, 2002Jo-Anne Tierno has been visiting Old St. Luke’s Church in Scott Township since she was a little girl, and not just because it’s a picturesque historic landmark.
The church is part of her family’s history. She recalls looking during many visits for the burial stone of Jane Lee Nixon, one of her ancestors. Jane’s father, William Lee, donated the land where the church now stands.Attending the Easter sunrise ecumenical service at the church has been a family tradition since 1984, said Tierno, a Banksville resident.
“I keep going because it’s a part of my history,” she said. “I think everyone is looking to connect with the past. Especially since the present is so crazy. People look to the past for stability.”
The church will hold the service for the 26th year at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. And the Rev. Richard Davies, curator of the historic church, expects the stone building that holds 150 worshipers to be packed, even though Old St. Luke’s has no year-round congregation.
Davies conducts tours of Old St. Luke’s Church — which dates to 1852 — and holds ecumenical services there for the Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
“Easter morning is always jammed,” he said. “Who knows why people come, especially at that early hour.”
Perhaps it’s the church’s antiquity and all the tumultuous times that the building has survived, Davies suggested.
A stockade was built on the land in 1765, after British engineers were sent to secure a lookout to protect Fort Pitt from the Indians.
Several church congregations have gathered there but have been displaced during troubled times such as the Whiskey Rebellion, the Civil War and World War I.
The church closed in 1930 and fell into disrepair, said Davies, a retired Episcopal priest who serves at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon.
The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh owns Old St. Luke’s, but regular Sunday services haven’t been held there in decades. The nonprofit Old St. Luke’s Church, Burial Ground and Garden Inc. administers it, and Davies is the president of the board of directors.
The church is a primitive Gothic structure. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation heralded it as one of 70 outstanding pieces of architecture of its type in the state.
After its closing in 1930, the church remained idle until about 1960.
“It just disintegrated. The plaster crumbled. St. Paul’s church worked at it as much as they could for about five years, but then from 1965 to 1974 it sat again, just idle,” Davies said.
The diocese at the time said that the building either had to be sold for $1 or given to Scott Township for use as a recreation site.
“We just couldn’t let that happen,” Davies said. “So with thousands of dollars in donations, we began to restore the church. It’s a great example of what restoration actually means.”
The church’s roof was repaired. Most of the floor was replaced with pine boards of random length for a sense of authenticity. New pews were added. Plaster was stripped from interior walls, revealing an inner layer of stone. And new, donated stained glass windows were installed.
Maude McDowell of Mt. Lebanon has attended almost all the church’s ecumenical services.
“It’s one of Pittsburgh’s best hidden treasures,” she said. McDowell is an original board member at the church, and a former wedding consultant who helped to coordinate more than 330 weddings there.
The Easter service should last about an hour. Speakers include the Rev. Dr. H. Pat Albright, former pastor of Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church, and the Rev. Dr. John Yohe, former pastor at the Chartiers Valley United Presbyterian Church.
David Frankowski, dressed in Revolutionary War garb, will read scripture, and Davies will dress as a clergyman would have in the 1790s.
Musicians for the service include Thomas Thompson, a Pittsburgh Symphony clarinetist, and his daughter, Alexandra, who plays the cello.
Someone also will play the church’s Joseph Harvey pipe organ, a rare English cabinet instrument that dates to 1823. Trinity Episcopal Church, Downtown, gave the organ to St. Luke’s as a gift in 1852.
Davies said the classic organ was the first one brought over the Allegheny Mountains, and arrived via mule pack.
If you go
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Murphy’s law
By J.H. Huebert
Monday, March 18, 2002Is it fair that one man should be forced to turn over his property to another man just because the other is his political superior? Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy and City Planner Susan Golomb seem to think so.
Mayor Murphy, as you may know, once again is entertaining the use of the government’s power of eminent domain to take longtime Downtown businesses and real estate from their rightful owners and give the land to private developers who want to build things like a luxury hotel and new retail complex. This means that if community members like the 101-year-old family-owned Harris Brothers Florists and others who have been established there for decades refuse to surrender their property voluntarily, the city will simply take it from them.The resurfacing of this threat has attracted the attention of the Institute for Justice, a Washington, D.C., public-interest law firm that represents victims of eminent domain abuse in court for free. The institute played a pivotal part in defending these same Pittsburghers two years ago, when Murphy threatened to take their businesses and hand their land over to Chicago developers. The IFJ has vowed to stand up for them again.
Golomb, whose Plan C Task Force recommended the use of eminent domain to the mayor, argues that the institute doesn’t have any business telling her and the mayor how to run their city. “I think the issue you should understand is that the Plan C Task Force is made up of Pittsburghers,” she says. “The Institute for Justice is not a group of Pittsburghers.”
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CVS dismisses major defendant in ongoing lawsuit
March 12, 2002
Pittsburgh Business TimesCVS Pharmacy Inc. has dropped a major opponent in its lawsuit over a proposed store it hopes to build in Homestead.
CVS has dismissed Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation from its federal lawsuit against opposition to the drugstore chain’s plan for a new store on Eighth Avenue.
Originally, CVS intended to demolish 10 buildings along Homestead’s historic business district in order to build a new store. But CVS and its local developer, The Gustine Co., have faced opposition from Pittsburgh History & Landmarks as well as local community groups over preservation issues.
CVS filed the suit in July 2000, arguing that Pittsburgh History & Landmarks violated the drugstore chain’s constitutional rights. CVS planned to demolish the buildings and replace them with a modern store and accompanying parking lot.
While CVS dismissed its suit against Pittsburgh History & Landmarks, it maintains its lawsuits against Homestead and West Homestead boroughs, as well as against certain borough officials.In a prepared statement, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks expressed the hope that CVS, Gustine and Homestead could work together to find an amenable solution.
CVS is based in Woonsocket, R.I., and operates more than 4,000 retail stores in 32 states. Annual revenue for the company exceeds $22 billion.© 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.
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CVS Dismisses Lawsuit Against Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation
Pittsburgh, PA — March 7, 2002 — CVS Pharmacy, Inc. and its Pittsburgh-based developer, Gustine Properties, Inc., voluntarily dismissed their federal lawsuit against Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (Landmarks) and various other community groups and citizens that have opposed CVS’s plan to demolish ten buildings in the national historic district in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The Homestead Borough and West Homestead Borough, as well as certain Borough officials, were not dismissed from the lawsuit.
The suit, which was filed in July of 2000, charged that Landmarks and others violated CVS’s constitutional rights by seeking to block the demolition of buildings in the historic district to make way for a new CVS pharmacy and parking lot.
Representatives of Landmarks said they hope that other retail chains and their developers will be discouraged from filing what critics have called SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), in which developers aim to silence local opposition groups by forcing them to spend large sums of money to defend themselves in court.
Landmarks is hopeful that CVS, Gustine, and Homestead will work together on a solution that would avoid the demolition of the buildings in the historic district. In the interest of promoting such discussions, Landmarks will, at this time, withhold additional comment on the voluntary dismissal of Landmarks and the other defendants.
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Eminent domain debated
By Dave Copeland and Luis Fabregas
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 10, 2002Opponents and proponents of using eminent domain rarely see eye-to-eye, but they do agree on one thing: The process is seldom easy and rarely pleases all sides.
On Thursday, the Plan C Task Force recommended that Mayor Tom Murphy abandon his pledge to not use eminent domain for Downtown redevelopment efforts. The majority recommendation in the group’s approach brought immediate cries of protest from some Downtown property owners and a Washington, D.C., watchdog group that labeled the recommendation as eminent domain abuse.But backers of the plan say eminent domain is needed to ensure the city will be able to assemble the multi-block parcel under consideration for redevelopment. Even Murphy conceded last week that eminent domain may be needed if property owners refused to sell their property at reasonable rates to the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Eminent domain was one of the key criticisms of Murphy’s original plan, known as Market Place at Fifth & Forbes. That plan fell apart in November 2000, prompting Murphy to form the Plan C Task Force and pledge not to use eminent domain.
The concept of using eminent domain as a redevelopment tool started in Pittsburgh at the edge of Point State Park. In the late 1940s, the URA used eminent domain to take 23 acres to build Gateway Center, the four steel towers that sit at the entrance to the city. Part of what became known as Pittsburgh’s first Renaissance, Gateway Center was the nation’s first redevelopment project to use eminent domain to transfer property for a private, commercial use.
A decade later, the URA again used the threat of eminent domain to clear 1,300 lower Hill District Buildings to make way for Mellon Arena. Today, the project is still widely criticized for destroying what many consider to have been a vibrant neighborhood and one of the key spots on the national jazz scene.
More than 40 years later, eminent domain still raises tension among elected and business leaders.
State Rep. Bill Robinson has become a vocal critic of eminent domain. Robinson, a Democrat from Schenley Heights, said it was a ruling from the county Court of Common Pleas — in the case involving a church displaced by the URA — that broadened the scope of eminent domain locally into the area of retail developments.
Experts say eminent domain is used by government to create space for schools, playgrounds and infrastructure. In theory, it is the government’s right to acquire private property for public use.
“Eminent domain has been used more as a power tool that’s in the back room and you have it, but you end up never using it,” said Karen Alschuler, an urban planner in San Francisco. “You can always use it as a last resort, but it’s always better if you don’t have to go through the actual legal proceeding.”
In Pittsburgh, eminent domain most recently has been the tool of choice to rid the North Side of one of its most notable tenants — the X-rated Garden Theatre. Despite the site’s condemnation, the owner has refused to sell the building and the case remains tangled in a court battle.
Mayor Tom Murphy often talks of the Garden Theatre as the only time his administration has been forced to file an eminent domain suit against a property owner. The case remains unsettled, and has held up the Federal-North project aimed at redeveloping two rundown blocks on the North Side.
To date, the URA has paid more than $500,000 in legal fees in the four-year dispute. Currently, the case is awaiting a decision in the county Court of Common Pleas.
In 1999, the URA threatened to take North Side land and buildings owned by the Pittsburgh Wool Co. by eminent domain with plans of transferring the acquired property to the H.J. Heinz Co. The city never filed an eminent domain suit, but ended up paying $5 million for property that had an assessed value of $1.5 million.
The URA sold the land to Heinz for $1.5 million. Today, it is occupied by the food maker’s new, 70,000-square-foot warehouse.
“Eminent domain is appropriate for a true public works project — the building of a road, the building of a dam, the building of a school,” said Scott Bullock, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, which has staged campaigns against the use of eminent domain as a redevelopment tool. “Unfortunately, over the past 40 or 50 years, we’ve gotten away from that.”
The institute has vowed to defend Downtown property owners for free if the city tries to take their property with eminent domain.
Not everyone directly affected by eminent domain opposes it.
“Sometimes we all have to make a bigger sacrifice in order to be part of this community,” said Pat Joseph, executive director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Joseph was forced to move her North Side office in the Martin Building along General Robinson and Federal streets to make room for PNC Park. “Eminent domain is not a negative thing, as long as everyone is represented.”
Plan C Task Force spokeswoman and city Planning Director Susan Golomb said eminent domain would be used only as a last resort. She branded the Institute for Justice as “out-of-towners.”
“I think the issue you should understand is that the Plan C Task Force is made up of Pittsburghers. This is a group of people who had very different opinions that came together and formed a consensus,” Golomb said. “We think this is a very exciting plan and feel it’s unfortunate that an out-of-town group would come in to criticize it.”
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Downtown welcomes Plan C’s apartments
By Sam Spatter
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, March 9, 2002The proposal to add 480 new apartments Downtown as part of Plan C is welcome news to members of the Downtown Neighborhood Association and the estimated 5,000 people who call that section of the city home.
Through the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, a number of initiatives have been put in place to encourage developers to convert some of the older, vacant or underused buildings into apartments.The most recent opening was the 117-unit Penn Garrison Apartments in the 900 block of Penn Avenue, where two former office buildings have been converted by the Regional Industrial Development Corp. into residences.
Approximately 30 of those units have been leased, including all of the larger loft apartments.