Gov. Shapiro fast-tracks oil refinery redevelopment and impacted residents call for City Council hearings

City Council cannot afford to ignore major red flags surrounding the largest redevelopment in Philly’s history — including flooding risks and displacement.

A view of the land that was once the site of the PES refinery is photographed with the skyline in the background in South Philadelphia on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. In the four years since the massive explosion forced the closure of the oil refinery in South Philadelphia, the site — which accounts for 2% of the city's land area — has been cleared and will be transformed into the Bellwether District by HRP Group.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

by Debbie Robinson and Allie Naganuma, For The Inquirer

Published Dec. 5, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

On Nov. 19, Gov. Josh Shapiro created the PA Permit Fast Track Program, accelerating the redevelopment of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philadelphia — despite local residents’ concerns that the project will increase flooding in our neighborhoods and price us out of our homes. This is just the latest example of our government prioritizing the refinery’s redeveloper, HRP Group, over Philadelphians.

Both City Council and the School District of Philadelphia’s board recently approved a second 10-year tax break extension for HRP, depriving our underfunded school system of millions of dollars, in spite of looming school closures.

For over 150 years, the refinery polluted our neighborhoods, giving nearby residents cancer and contributing to the city’s “F” air quality rating. After the refinery exploded in 2019, the most serious refinery accident in decades and a narrowly averted wide-ranging catastrophe, our organization, Philly Thrive, effectively protested for its closure. When Hilco Redevelopment Partners bought the land, it promised “all-inclusive outreach” as it designed its redevelopment plans.

Since 2020, HRP and City Council have repeatedly committed to addressing community needs via a community benefits agreement (CBA) — a legally binding contract through which impacted residents negotiate with the developer to win benefits like the right to unionize on the site and affordable housing protections for nearby neighborhoods.

CBAs are common for major developments in Philly and across the country, but they need to be created carefully. Developers often use weak CBAs to shortchange low-income communities, as we’ve seen with the heavily criticized CBA for the proposed 76ers arena. That’s why Philly Thrive spent years gathering community priorities, convening community organizations, and hiring legal experts to form the strongest CBA proposal possible.

Last month, HRP offered community groups a non-enforceable “commitments” document that ignores our top concerns and is not a legitimate CBA, according to Julian Gross, one of the nation’s experts on the topic. Gross said: “There’s nothing stopping HRP from modifying or retracting its document. CBAs are negotiated by developers and community organizations, and they each make legal commitments that are enforceable by the other. That’s not happening here.”

We deserve better.

HRP circulated its offer to community groups just before City Council’s vote on its tax break extension, forcing groups to accept within one week and building its political leverage for the vote.

Sixteen community groups accepted HRP’s offer. In our view, this was a result of HRP’s “divide and conquer” strategy, commonly used by developers.

HRP repeatedly warned community groups that it was “voluntarily” entertaining community benefits discussions, threatening to walk away at any time and forcing community groups into a “something is better than nothing” mindset. Even those who accepted HRP’s offer, such as Grays Ferry leader Charles Reeves, expressed disappointment. “Do I agree with all the stuff? No,” he said. “Is it transparent enough? No.”

We, the residents who suffered from the refinery’s pollution and the organizers who shut it down, declined HRP’s offer because it is not a real CBA, and because it fails to address key concerns residents have raised for years, particularly regarding flooding risks and displacement.

HRP plans to replace well-draining soil with hundreds of acres of impervious pavement, causing rainwater to accumulate and increasing flooding risks in our neighborhoods. Flooding already poses health risks, as storms often cause raw sewage overflows in our streets and basements.

Although HRP claims it completed a flooding study with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it isn’t publicly available, and there is no evidence it considered impacts on our neighborhoods. We need a comprehensive, publicly accessible flood impact study to ensure residents’ safety and homes are protected.

HRP’s planned “innovation” campus — featuring laboratories, pharmaceuticals, and white-collar jobs — will increase local housing prices and push long-term residents out. According to the United States Census American Communities Survey data from census tract 33 (five-year estimates) between 2016 and 2022, areas of Grays Ferry facing the highest displacement pressures saw median home values increase from $81,000 to $207,000, and the Black population decrease from 70% to 43%.

This trend will worsen as high-earning “innovation” employees seek housing nearby, further pressuring the local market. Long-term residents deserve to enjoy the benefits of the refinery’s closure, but to remain in our neighborhoods, we need sustainably funded programs like free home repairs and offsets on rising property taxes and rental costs.

Public input on HRP’s redevelopment has been a complete joke thus far — occasionally bringing out literal clowns — but it won’t be funny for Philadelphians if the project’s many red flags continue to go unaddressed.

As HRP accelerates construction, the window to prevent flooding and displacement, among many other issues, is rapidly closing. City Council must schedule public hearings during January to transparently and diligently evaluate HRP’s plans, just like we’ve seen for other major development projects like the 76ers arena.

As we learned with the refinery explosion in 2019, it’s one community’s problem until it’s everyone’s problem. We deserve better.

Debbie Robinson, a Grays Ferry resident of 22 years, and Allie Naganuma, a campaign organizer, are members of Philly Thrive, a community organization based in Grays Ferry that won the permanent closure of the South Philly oil refinery in 2020. Philly Thrive’s current campaigns contest for justice in the historic refinery site redevelopment and fight to ensure Grays Ferry residents can stay in their homes.