Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette
A historic agreement involving the redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site isn't even 4 months old, but the Hill Community Development Corp. and the Penguins already are accusing each other of violating its terms.
The hockey team chastised the Hill CDC on Monday for filing an appeal last week of a city planning commission decision approving the preliminary land development plan for the 28-acre publicly owned property and recommending a zoning change.
Travis Williams, the Penguins' chief operating officer, charged that the agency chose to ignore the community collaboration and implementation plan agreed to in September in filing the appeal.
"They filed the appeal in an attempt to try to expand the community collaboration and implementation plan already in place and that they signed," he said.
Among the measures, the plan sets the percentage of affordable housing to be built at the site at 20 percent of the 1,100 units planned, with those making 60 to 80 percent of the area median income eligible.
But Mr. Williams claimed that the Hill CDC now wants "more affordable housing than they agreed to in the deal and they want other expanded rights," though he did not elaborate.
City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, is pushing legislation requiring that housing developers using public money or building on public land make "commercially reasonable efforts" to ensure 30 percent of the units are affordable. But he has said the 20 percent outlined in the community collaboration and implementation plan would be the minimum standard for the arena site.
Even as the Penguins pounced on the Hill CDC, Jonathan Kamin, attorney for the group, threw some of his own body checks at the team, saying it has been slow in setting up neighborhood charrettes and getting other community input.
While the team has said that half of the tax abatements to be used to help develop the new U.S. Steel headquarters on the arena site -- as much as $3 million -- will go to fund development in other parts of the Hill, Mr. Kamin said the team hasn't given the Hill CDC any formal confirmation of that. He also maintained a team representative "repudiated" the community collaboration and implementation plan by describing it as "aspirational."
"They are not in compliance with the agreement at this point. Despite our requests, they are unwilling to do what they said they were going to do," he said.
Mr. Williams argued that the team has moved to ensure that money from the U.S. Steel development would be used in other parts of the Hill and that it has held dozens of meetings with residents.
He also said the Penguins lived up to prior commitments in supplying $1 million for the Hill District Shop 'n Save and in making sure that more than 35 percent of the 861 jobs spread among Consol Energy Center, Cambria Suites hotel and two retail spaces went went to Hill residents.
"All of those things we said we would do, and we did them," he said.
The appeal charges that the planning commission decision was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not supported by substantial evidence and was contrary to law."
Mr. Williams said he does not expect the appeal to affect development on the arena site.
Mark Belko: mbelko [at] post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
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