October 31–November 7, 1996

city beat

The Battle of Germantown

Does Germantown Plaza mean new jobs or a screw job? Depends on who you ask.

By Frank Lewis

 

When ground was broken last spring for a new shopping center at Wayne and Chelten Avenues, some Germantown residents opposed to the development promptly began picketing at the construction site.

The developer sought an injunction, but the judge instead asked a public official in attendance to serve as a mediator between the two parties.

Meetings were held, but little was accomplished. Today, the residents continue to hope that the stores will never open, even as the developer and his community-based partner in this public-private venture oversee the laying of foundations and installation of plumbing.

Welcome to Germantown Plaza, the center of a decade-long controversy over what is best for this struggling neighborhood. Perhaps never before has the addition of a discount supermarket, drug store and donut shop to an urban neighborhood been so hotly — and endlessly — contested.

In one corner are the developer — Nick Jekogian of Mount Laurel, NJ's Site Development Inc. — and his partner, the Central Germantown Council (CGC), a government-funded non-profit. In the other is a loose coalition of community organizations from surrounding neighborhoods.

Jekogian and CGC intend to proceed with the project. The opponents continue to fight for concessions, and to halt the project altogether like they helped to do once before.

Germantown Plaza can be traced back to the 1970s, when community leaders were looking for ways to bolster the city's second-largest shopping district.

A planning committee kicked around ideas for new shopping centers in the early '80s, and from those meetings came the Central Germantown Council. The CGC was charged with promoting the community as a business center and watching out for residents' interests as plans were realized.

Around 1987, the CGC teamed up with a developer and began to pitch the Germantown Plaza plan to community organizations closest to the site. But almost none went for it, according to Gail Tomlinson of West Central Germantown Neighbors. (One group supported the plan at first, then opted not to take a stand due to disagreement among its members.)

CGC not only continued to push for the plaza, but professed to city officials to speak for the community, say Tomlinson and others. "They touted themselves as having that support to the powers that be," said Thomas Grabe of Price-Knox Neighborhood Association.

So in 1988, then-Councilman Joseph Coleman introduced a bill to change the zoning of the site from residential to commercial. But when a hearing was held, only Councilman-at-Large David Cohen stayed long enough to listen to the opponents' objections. (Cohen, incidentally, also presided over the meetings following the picketing.) The bill passed.

"In the end," said Gail Tomlinson, "we got screwed."

But then the project stalled. Whether wary of the vehement opposition, the slowly sliding economy, or both, prospective tenants shied away.

In 1992, Site Development Inc. bought the original developer's interest in the property and formed a public-private partnership, Germantown Equities, with CGC. Scaled down considerably over the years, the plaza plan today includes a Sav-A-Lot supermarket, a Thrift Drug and, in one corner of the parking lot, a Dunkin' Donuts — provided the Zoning Board grants the necessary take-out business certificate. A hearing was held last Tuesday, but the vote was postponed.

In March, Germantown Equities received a $635,000 low-interest loan from Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation's neighborhood development fund. A spokesperson for the city's Office of Housing and Community Development said the Commerce Department provided another $100,000, but repeated calls to Commerce were not returned.

Opponents say their concerns stem from the plaza's proximity to their homes.

"I've got the back of Sav-A-Lot outside my front door," said Margaret Robinson, captain of the 5700 block of Knox Street. Robinson said her neighbors — who fear a daily parade of delivery and trash trucks a stone's throw from their front steps — are "100 percent opposed" to the plaza.

Of even greater concern is a vehicle exit that opponents say will be dangerously close to a popular playground. They've asked repeatedly that it be moved, but to no avail; according to Tomlinson, Jekogian agrees to discuss the residents' concerns, then tells them the plans are too far along to be changed. Jekogian did not return City Paper's calls.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that no local residents had been hired to work on the construction site until last week, when two joined the crew.

"This lot is nestled into a residential community, and it takes a big bite out of it," said Tomlinson. "Germantown needs [commercial development], but it doesn't need it in this location."

But as Byron Woodson of CGC points out, the land was zoned for residential use for 17 years, and nothing was built there.

Referring to the current project, Woodson said the residents "really didn't pay attention to the concessions CGC was able to get because they were trying to stop the development totally."

For example, in early plans, delivery trucks would have used the narrow side streets to get to the rear of the stores. Now they will enter the plaza from Wayne Avenue and drive across the site.

CGC also convinced the developer to eliminate one proposed parking lot entrance/exit, and to change another to exit-only and left turn-only. Regarding the exit near the playground, Woodson said Jekogian is "considering closing that altogether."

CGC also is "working hard" to make sure more construction jobs go to local residents, Woodson said. Subcontractors have been asked to cooperate in this effort.

Councilwoman Donna Miller is in the unenviable position of trying to deal fairly with constituents who want to shut down a project in which she not only believes, but has invested much of her own time. Miller was president of CGC from 1992 to 1995, and was involved in one way or another from the earliest meetings of the planning committee.

Miller contends the plaza will create much-needed jobs and help protect existing ones. "One business enhances the other," she said, "so it's an opportunity to help keep other businesses alive."

But the resistance seems to have worn on her nerves.

"I agree we have to make sure curb cuts are in the right places, the lighting isn't bothering anybody, things like that," she said, adding that Jekogian "could have been more sensitive" to the residents in the early stages.

But opponents have continued to complain, she said, even after their demands have been addressed.

"I have met with this group more times over the years than probably any other [CGC] president," she said. "I have met with them and met with them and met with them, and they will leave my office and call somebody up and say 'Donna Miller won't meet with us.'"

"At some point, I think they stopped trusting me," she said, though she doesn't understand why. "I was the biggest advocate for them. That developer was sick of me."

Miller allowed that "maybe it's time I meet with them again," but also believes most Germantown residents now support the plaza. However, she declined to name the organizations now behind the project until she'd had a chance to contact the groups' officers. City Paper received no calls from pro-plaza groups before press time.