Mark my words, all of this will hold this project up for years. I do understand both sides, but come on...let's get something actually done for a change!
Costly renewal
Shop owners resist Steelton buyouts
Monday, October 02, 2006
BY JIM LEWIS
Of The Patriot-News
Yefim Bik's used-car lot and auto-repair garage sit along Steelton's main street in the shadow of a faded steel mill -- and in the way of the struggling steel town's million-dollar face-lift.
His cars line the street like contestants in a beauty contest, while in a metal three-bay garage filled with auto parts, spare hubcaps and noisy equipment, he grinds a faulty wheel rotor. It's a modest business that took him nine years to build, but it sits on a parcel where town leaders hope to erect an 8-acre business park of offices, shops and restaurants, and revive a sagging business district.
He's been asked to sell his property. The town's economic development corporation offered Bik the appraised value plus 25 percent, he said. He has refused, one of three landowners who have rejected offers to sell parcels on a stretch of Front Street to make way for a makeover.
Steelton now is trying to seize the property by eminent domain. It hopes to acquire Bik's car lot, a Mexican grocery, a New Age bookstore and a barbershop, and pass them on to the town's development corporation, which would demolish buildings between Locust and Trewick streets for private development.
It's part of an ambitious plan, dubbed "The New Steelton" by town leaders, to renovate the blue-collar town with new offices, storefronts, gaslight-style streetlights and a grand plaza across from Borough Hall within a decade.
The renovation would bring an estimated $32 million worth of development and 500 jobs, almost as many as can be found at the once-bustling steel mill, said Michael G. Musser II, borough secretary and the development corporation's executive director.
Nine landowners have agreed to sell their Front Street properties, but the three who have balked are forcing the borough to try to take their land by eminent domain, Musser said.
"Our goal was never to have to go this far," Musser said. "This is what we have to do to keep the project going. Our job is to do what's in the best interests of the town."
Offers made to property owners for their land were "generous," Musser said -- more than the appraised value of the parcels, but some want "exorbitant amounts of money." He could not release specific amounts, he said.
Bik said he rejected the offer for his car lot and garage because he didn't think it compensated him for the work he put into his business. It would be difficult to find another location for his lot and garage at an affordable price, he said.
"I'm not looking to get crazy money here," Bik said. "There is no way I can buy a place like this and build my business again for the amount of money they offered. They don't want to pay, that's the problem. They want me to just go, and that's not right."
The property clash in Steelton highlights the debate over the use of eminent domain by governments to seize land for private development.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a controversial ruling, said a Connecticut city could seize homes for a private developer who wanted to build a resort hotel, condominiums and offices.
The ruling moved Pennsylvania's General Assembly to pass a bill that prohibits, with some exceptions, the use of eminent domain to convey private property that is not considered blighted to a commercial developer. Gov. Ed Rendell signed the bill into law in May.
But Steelton filed its eminent domain actions in court on Aug. 31, a day before the new law took effect -- so it doesn't apply, Musser said.
"When we filed our action, we were under the old law which the Supreme Court has spelled out," Musser said. Under the Supreme Court's ruling, "community revitalization is a good public use" of eminent domain, he said.
To Michael Nebroski, one of the landowners who have refused offers to sell, borough leaders moved quickly to beat the new law. "If the new law had taken effect, they could not have done this," he said.
Nebroski said he refused an offer of $175,000 for his property, which houses a barbershop, apartments and Divine Light Book Store, a New Age shop that sells herbs, incense, crystals, candles and tarot cards, among other items.
The offer did not consider the value of his business and his loss of income if it takes time to find a new location, he said.
The corporation's appraisal of his property was done without anyone inspecting the interior, and it's too expensive to pay for his own appraisal, Nebroski said. Asked how much would be a fair price, he replied, "I have no idea. All I am asking for is a reasonable amount, for us to sit down and discuss that.
"I do want to see Steelton grow and prosper," said Nebroski, a resident who owns other property in the borough, but he wishes his property didn't have to be demolished in the town's restoration.
For Martin Vargo, who owns a house once used as a knickknacks shop next to Nebroski's bookstore, the offer for his property was fair. He agreed to sell it for $85,000. He paid $13,000 for it in 1995, according to county records. Though the property needed "extensive repairs," he said he "did quite well."
"I believe people were thinking they were going to get outrageous prices for their property," Vargo said.
The move to seize the properties has been the talk of Steelton.
To Kristin Roberts, a resident who dreams of opening an old-fashioned soda fountain on Front Street, it might be needed for any meaningful progress in town.
"It's going to take more than just some cobblestones and hanging flower baskets," Roberts said.
Rhonda Horne sees value in "The New Steelton," even if it means she will have to close her Front Street hair salon and move. Her landlord has signed an option with the town's development corporation to sell the building she leases.
"It's inconvenient. Once somebody gets settled into an environment that's comfortable, you don't want to relocate," said Horne, a Steelton resident. "Unfortunately, you have to."
Resistant property owners could agree to sell to the borough before the county court rules on Steelton's eminent domain attempt, Musser said.
"I really think it can be worked out, but the movement has to be on the property owners right now," he said.
But to Bik, an emigrant from Ukraine, eminent domain reminds him of his former homeland. "A dictatorship," he said.
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I think he has done some great things for the city, but I do feel it is now time for him to GO!
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