Redevelopment

The massive $1.2 billion redevelopment plan of the Cramer Hill neighborhood in Camden led to protests against eminent domain and lawsuits before it finally collapsed. Now, the still-notorious attempt at redevelopment and gentrification has played a part in two federal indictments. "That's beautiful!" said Mary Cortes, a community activist who opposed the plan because 1,200 families were due to be displaced. "Justice is getting done, finally. " Camden's former state senator, Wayne Bryant, a political powerhouse in this impoverished city even though he lived in suburban Lawnside, is already in prison on separate corruption charges.

Drawing on their religious faith and their financial resources, local Episcopalians have decided to invest $1 million in the redevelopment of poor communities in the Philadelphia area. The investment was announced yesterday by Bishop Allen L. Bartlett Jr., head of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. The money will go to the Delaware Valley Community Reinvestment Fund, which lends money for community development projects, especially those that create low-income housing. The church hopes to raise $5 million for community redevelopment over the next five years, the bishop said during a news conference at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Rittenhouse Square.

Traveling down the roadways of Bensalem Township, Joseph DiGirolamo sits behind the steering wheel of his van, enumerating the township projects that have been completed or begun since voters decided to go to a strong mayor/council form of government in 1990. "We've redeveloped a good deal of the commercial area in the township," DiGirolamo said. "One shopping center had 13 empty sites. Now it only has two. We've redone the township roads. "We're buying more land for our Central Park, which surrounds the township building.

Township officials will meet with a private developer this week to sign an agreement that could lead to redevelopment of the long defunct Willingboro Plaza. ReNEWal Realty LLC would become partners with the township in cleaning up the plaza, which is polluted with asbestos and contaminated by underground fuel-storage tanks. Stephen R. Jaffe, a Cherry Hill-based environmental lawyer representing the firm, said ReNEWal would decide tomorrow whether to sign a redevelopment agreement with Willingboro.

The Bristol Borough Planning Commission on Monday reviewed the progress of two major redevelopment projects - Riverfront North and Gateway. The update came from Robert Dusek of Direction Associates, of Spring House, the borough's planning consultant. He is working jointly with the borough and the borough's redevelopment authority. Dusek described the 32-acre Riverfront North development parcel, which includes the condemned Superior Zinc plant, as a "magnificent resource. " The property has attracted interest from potential developers, Dusek said.

In 1970, when the last of the rubber and textile mills were pulling out of Passaic, New Jersey's oldest industrial city, the city government came up with a plan to spruce up the decaying downtown and catch up on lost revenues. The goal was to turn Passaic into the shopping capital of the state. But the plans didn't go anywhere - until a year ago, when a devastating fire took care of the decaying downtown by destroying much of it. A year later, some people in Passaic think the fire was the best thing to happen to the city in decades.

Redevelopment has to be the strategy if old, built-out Camden County is to increase revenue while keeping property taxes in check. It's proper, then, for voters to judge county freeholders by how they're handling redevelopment. About $2 billion of redevelopment work is on the drawing board or under way. But the county has bobbled some key projects, such as the Pennsauken Mart site. Voters in Tuesday's freeholder election must consider which candidates can best overcome past stumbles.

The situation unfolding with regard to Cramer Hill in Camden, Petty's Island, and the Pennsauken riverfront is loaded with opportunities. Unfortunately, it is about to become a litany of mistakes and missed opportunities because of poor public leadership, bad planning, and a lack of vision. Cherokee Investment Partners has proposed a $2.2 billion investment - $1.2 billion in the Cramer Hill neighborhood and $1 billion in Pennsauken. Most of the land it would redevelop is waterfront, including Petty's Island, and much is vacant.

When you turn onto Levis Drive in Mount Holly, you enter a canopy of trees adorning the streets and lawns of the Mount Holly Gardens. You'll see neighbors speaking with each other and waving at passersby. The racially diverse neighborhood consists of seniors, young families and multigenerational households. Citizens in Action, a group of roughly 50 residents of The Gardens, as the neighborhood is known, is fighting a large-scale redevelopment program facilitated by Mount Holly Township.

Turning up the heat on Camden's state-appointed economic czar, City Council yesterday hired an attorney to represent it in a showdown with Melvin R. "Randy" Primas Jr. before a Superior Court judge. The move is part of a power struggle ignited between Primas and Council over redevelopment of the blighted Waterfront South neighborhood. Council has supported representatives of the Waterfront South community who opposed approval of a neighborhood redevelopment plan backed by Primas that they feared would isolate and eventually destroy their neighborhood, which is pockmarked by numerous environmentally contaminated areas.

By the time all the dignitaries, friends, and others close to former Camden Mayor Melvin R. "Randy" Primas Jr. arrived at his funeral Friday, most were done mourning. Friday's ceremony, which started with a two-hour viewing and concluded with a 90-minute "home-going" service at St. John Baptist Church in East Camden, featured more laughs than tears. It was a reunion for current and former politicians, clergy and residents. People hugged and waved from opposite sides of the church, which was filled with nearly 1,000 people.

Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd created a "one-stop" growth team last year to try to attract businesses and development to increase the city's low tax base - $22.7 million for the $173 million 2011 budget. Despite Redd's proclamation last week in her "State of the City" address that the ombudsman and Business Growth and Development Team - comprised of city planning, development, code and legal officials, and nonprofit developers from the Cooper's Ferry Partnership - had made about 200 contacts, only a few projects have come to fruition.

Cramer Hill hasn't changed much in the six years since federal authorities say former State Sen. Wayne Bryant used the Camden neighborhood's hopes to line his own pockets. The community of about 10,000 residents that was promised an urban renaissance is still plagued by abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and high unemployment. It's a familiar story in many U.S. cities. Bryant's alleged role in that story, to be detailed in a corruption trial set to begin Tuesday in federal court in Trenton, also is familiar: Politics and power often trump the public good.

Aiming for a more efficient channel for community input on issues from redevelopment to public safety, Camden officials Tuesday announced the creation of a "Community Congress. " The congress, made up of three representatives from each of the city's 21 neighborhoods, immediately drew concern from some of the city's redevelopment nonprofits after its presentation Tuesday at City Council chambers. With the emergence of many nonprofit groups, said the director of planning and development, Ed Williams, city officials are concerned about who is representing whom at Council meetings and other public forums.

With millions of dollars in federal grants available to fix up dilapidated homes, Camden nonprofit redevelopment groups are eager for the city to use the state Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act, as it promised it would this year. But using the law - pitched as a more efficient way than foreclosure to take control of blighted properties - has proven to be a lengthier process than many imagined. As the months pass, there is a growing sense of urgency among some groups to get titles to the properties they applied to rehabilitate before those essential grants expire.

Elaine Newman Moranz, 65, of Newtown Square, a lawyer who specialized in commercial real estate law, died of ovarian cancer on Thursday, Oct. 27, at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Trained as a city planner and lawyer, Mrs. Moranz had been a partner in the law firm Fox, Rothschild, O'Brien & Frankel since 1987. "Elaine will be remembered for both her intelligence and integrity. She will be missed by clients and colleagues alike," said Mark L. Silow, managing partner at Fox Rothschild.

Nancy Lopez makes a small fist as she insists she won't budge from the rowhouse she has called home in Mount Holly for 24 years. "I'm fighting this until I get my fair rights that I deserve as an American, as a single parent who brought up five kids right, as a person who bought my own home," Lopez said as a bulldozer at the end of her tiny street groaned, drowning out her voice. Then the former teacher's assistant sighed. The township's threat of eminent domain over the last decade has taken a toll, and she doesn't know how long she can resist.

Mayor Nutter said Friday that the city would receive $9 million in federal grants and loans to help redevelop vacant sites. Some of the money will be used to develop Bakers Centre, a shopping center at the former Tasty Baking Co. site in Nicetown. The funding will also be used to develop Edison Square, a complex with a shopping center and affordable housing at the former site of Thomas Edison High School in North Philadelphia. The Bakers Centre project is expected to cost $53 million and the Edison Square project $11 million.