Report on the Meeting to Discuss the Fate of the U. S Naval Asylum
St. Anthony Senior Center, 2309 Carpenter Street
February 11, 2003, 7:30 p.m.

See also: Philadelphia Inquirer article, February 12, 2003; Ann Hoskins-Brown's report on Hallwatch

Presiding: Angela Richardson, chair, SOSNA board

Presenters:

• Kathleen Murray, Special Assistant to the President of City Council
• Kevin Hanna, Secretary of Housing & Neighborhood Preservation
• Robert Solvibile, First Deputy Commissioner, Department of Licenses and Inspections
• Andrew Ross, Law Department
• Richard Tyler, Philadelphia Historical Commission
• John Gallery, Director, Preservation Alliance of Philadelphia

It was standing room only at the community meeting

This report will summarize the presentations of the speakers and points raised in subsequent discussion. Many of those present expressed their distrust of Toll Brothers and their dissatisfaction with the City's response to Toll's neglect of the property. This report, however, concentrates on actions taken and possible next steps.

Condition of the Building. Following a preliminary survey by L&I, and upon the recommendation of John Gallery to Mayor Street and City Council President Verna, the City has hired an independent engineering firm, Keast and Hood, to assess the damage to the building. Their preliminary report suggests that the damage has been largely confined to the roof and that the building is structurally sound. Solvibile further explained that every 16 feet there is a ten-foot bearing wall, making the building very sturdy. The City will not support a demolition permit, he observed, because the building can be preserved as is without risk to the integrity of the structure, once the roof has been secured. "This building has to be saved -- it's straight-out gorgeous," Solvibile said. Residents noticing security breaches or intruders should contact Mary Anne Mahoney in City Council President Verna's Office, 215-686-3412 .

In response to the general fear that Toll Brothers would not secure the property but rather allow or encourage further deterioration, Solvible offered the following:

L&I is proceeding to seal the building without waiting for Toll Brothers. To date some 75 windows have been boarded up, with another 25-30 remaining. They are awaiting Keast and Hood's final report to decide how to proceed with stabilizing the roof.

Left to right: Bob Solvibile, Kathleen Murray, Andrew Ross, Richard Tyler

L&I is also working to assure better perimeter protection, while acknowledging that there are still some security flaws (e.g., the back fence), and Toll Brothers is alleged to be providing 24/7 guards.

City Complaint and February 20 hearing. The Law Department has drafted a complaint against Toll Brothers for the weeds, the graffiti, and various code violations. There will be a public hearing Thursday, February 20 -- Court of Common Pleas, City Hall Court Room 446. This is an equity hearing and the hearings will begin at 9:00, although the complaint against Toll Brothers may not be the first one heard. Strong community attendance would be helpful.

Other Legal Remedies. The legal remedies available to the city are limited and/or expensive, according to all speakers. Toll Naval Associates is the property owner and is current on its taxes. Moreover, the City was never an owner of the property and cannot "take it back" since it never had it. The city had in fact made an offer to purchase the property from the General Services Administration in order to convert the facility to a home for the elderly, but it was not able to match the bid of a private develope. rIn order to take the property via eminent domain, the City would have to pay fair market value for the parcel, which is substantial (surely in excess of $10 million). The federal or state government may have more remedies available to it, since the property had covenants attached to it to assure the maintenance of the historic structure. However, according to Richard Tyler of the Historic Commission and John Gallery of the Preservation Alliance, any case the state or federal government could make would be "thin."

Left to right: Richard Tyler, Angela Richardson, Keith Hanna, John Gallery

Next Steps. John Gallery of the Preservation Alliance commended the Mayor's Office, Anna Verna's office, and L&I for its prompt action in securing an independent assessment and securing the site itself. Toll Brothers, Gallery said, isn't interested in the Naval Home buildings. Toll Brothers is only interested in building 1,000 housing units. Gallery said he would like to see the City take an aggressive stance, fix the roof properly, put a lien against the property, force it to sheriff's sale, and get a responsible developer to do the job right.

Failing that, Gallery recommended a carrot-and-stick approach, with the sticks being various techniques to make the Naval Home a property Toll Brothers would like to sell, and the carrot some positive incentive to sell. Political pressure from, e.g., Senators Specter and Santorum might encourage Toll Brothers to consider selling. Kevin Hanna noted that publicly traded companies don't want the kinds of publicity that can spook their shareholders. A resident of the community suggested other techniques, such as advertisements featuring the smoldering ruins of the Naval Home in real estate sections where Toll Brothers is trying to sell luxury homes. Letter campaigns to municipalities and civic groups in areas in which Toll is seeking zoning variances is another possibility. The community can be of inestimable help in keeping up the pressure through the media, through letters to elected officials, Toll Naval Associates, and Toll's various stakeholders (potential customers, zoning commissions and municipalities, institutional investors, etc.).

[In a side note, Gallery commented that the Naval Home situation has prompted the Preservation Alliance to resolve to conduct a census of Philadelphia buildings at risk as a first step to developing strategies to save them.]

Some other potential avenues to explore included

• Raise their taxes. Everyone else has seen significant tax increases since 1988. Toll Brothers has not, despite a significant increase in the value of the parcel.

• Check on asbestos. If there was any, all of us who were downwind are potential parties to a class action lawsuit.
  
  
• Involve the Navy or Navy Veterans. One attendee suggested that anyone who ever had a family member who was assessed a portion of his navy wages to pay for the Naval Asylum may be potentially a party to a class action.
  
  
• Be a newsworthy presence wherever the brothers Toll may be. Local appearances on the horizon include Penn, February 20, and the Red Cross, February 21.

• Consider other "carrot and stick" incentives for Toll Brothers to do the right thing. (The larger and more varied the "sticks," the smaller the "carrot" likely to be required.)

Next steps: At the SOSNA general meeting, February 12, 2002, those present will take up Doerte Smith's suggestion that the community form a task force to continue working on the Naval Home issue. (Several community members had voiced frustration at previous efforts losing momentum.) Persons interested in joining the task force should go to the sign up form and check off the Naval Home Task Force box.

Addresses of elected officials and other stakeholders will be posted to the SOSNA website. In the meantime, letters of concern can be addressed to: Toll Naval Associates, 3103 Philmont Avenue, Huntington Valley, PA 19006.

If you were present at this meeting and feel that an important point was overlooked in this report, please send e-mail to Laura Blanchard so that she can update it.

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