U.S. Steel
A rendering of the new U.S. Steel office building planned for the site of the former Civic Arena in the Hill District.
It's the equivalent of dropping the gloves.
The Penguins claimed Wednesday that an appeal filed by a Hill District group over city planning commission approval of a development blueprint for the former Civic Arena site has the potential to jeopardize the construction of the new U.S. Steel headquarters.
In a "petition to intervene," the team argued that the Hill Community Development Corp. filed the appeal of the preliminary land development plan approval "in bad faith to leverage the U.S. Steel development" into a new community collaboration and implementation plan, which governs issues such as affordable housing and minority business participation.
It marks the team's first formal legal response to the appeal filed last week by the Hill CDC seeking to reverse the planning commission's decision last month to approve the land development plan and recommend a related zoning change.
The Penguins, the Hill CDC, other Hill leaders and local politicians signed a community collaboration and implementation plan in September that sets the level of affordable housing at 20 percent of the 1,100 units to be built on the 28-acre publicly owned tract, calls for minority and women's business participation at 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively, and creates a pot of money to be used for redevelopment purposes in other parts of the Hill.
But the team, in its petition, accused the Hill CDC of filing the appeal "ostensibly for the purpose of re-writing" the agreement, or CCIP. It also charged that the group had "reneged" on its promise to "support" the team throughout each phase of the redevelopment.
"In essence, the Hill CDC has gone rogue in complete degradation of its promises under the CCIP," the team stated.
The Penguins asserted that the appeal "affects and may impede" the U.S. Steel development. Travis Williams, the team's chief operating officer, said the petition is an effort to prevent that from happening.
"We don't want the appeal to negatively impact the U.S. Steel deal, which will be transformational for the city and region. We filed the petition in an effort to get this resolved as soon as possible," he said.
Jonathan Kamin, attorney for the Hill CDC, rejected the assertions.
"This is the classic case of the person who kills his parents and cries about being an orphan," he said.
He has charged that the Penguins are the ones who have "repudiated" the agreement. He said the team has been slow in setting up required neighborhood charrettes and other meetings and has not given any confirmation of a plan to divert half of the tax abatements on the U.S. Steel development for use in other parts of the Hill.
"Once again, the Penguins have shown that they're more interested in stoking the fires than abiding by their own written agreements," he said. "The only thing we have ever asked for is that they comply with the contract that they signed. Their assertions of blame are completely inappropriate when they are the ones who have repudiated their obligations."
Mr. Kamin said the Hill CDC "is 100 percent behind" the proposed U.S. Steel development. "I don't understand how asking the Penguins to live by their contractual obligations is not supportive."
The Penguins countered in their petition that they have held at least 50 meetings with Hill representatives on the preliminary land development plan and other matters and have provided support for other community initiatives in the past, including a $1 million contribution for the Hill Shop 'n Save grocery, as a show of their commitment to the Hill.
Team officials also said that about 35 percent of the jobs filled at Consol Energy Center, the Cambria Suites hotel and related development went to Hill residents.
In filing the appeal, the Hill CDC was upset that the planning commission did not make abiding by the CCIP a requirement for those developing on the arena site. Instead, the commission placed a condition calling for developers to "endorse" the agreement.
Mark Belko: mbelko [at] post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
For further details go to: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2015/01/07/Hill-Distric...