The Triangle

Issue date: 8/20/04 Section: News

Media Credit: Morgan Rossmair A DrexeL-owned lot located at 32nd Street and Powelton Avenue Aug. 19. The University is seraching for possible uses of the land. These include townhouses for residential students and creating a recreation area for both students and Powelton residents.

The University's plan to use the 32nd and Powelton Avenue lot as the construction site of a 300-unit townhouse is being thwarted by members of the Powelton Village community.

National Lining Services owned the lot and the Consolidated Laundry Building, a commercial laundry site, which was located there since the early 1900s. The laundry site went out of business in the early 1990s, according to Powelton Village Civic Association Zoning Committee Chair and Powelton Village resident Larry Biond.

"This was a big old looking building which pretty much filled up the entire lot," Biond said.

"I am not entirely positive if the building had a basement, but I do know that a lot of chemical activity did occur at this place. That business cleaned laundry for all sorts of businesses and shops in the Philadelphia area. You could even that call that business a factory."

When the building was demolished by National Linen Services in 1995, then President of PVCA, Dan Safer, wrote a letter to the National Linen Services expressing interest in using the land as a recreational park for the Powelton Village community. The letter also stated that the community greatly needed the park and that PVCA was ready to begin fund-raising for the park endeavor as well as seek potential partnerships and assistance from Philadelphia Department of Recreation, Fairmount Park and the University.

"We are the only neighborhood in West Philadelphia who does not currently have a park," current President of PVCA Eric Burlingame said.

"We would love to see this lot be used as a recreational field for running track, tennis and basketball courts and for leisure use."

Media Credit: Morgan Rossmair The field at 32nd Street and Powelton Avenue that is owned by Drexel. The University and the PVCA had an agreement that the property would be used for recreation purposes. Initally Drexel and the PVCA decided that they would create a park for the students and residents of Powelton Village. Currently the University is exploring the posibility of placing townhouses on the property in an effort to expand residencial housing.

In 1996, the University expressed its interest in developing the site as a recreational space for use by the University and the community. According to a fax sent to former Vice President of Government and Community Relations Joseph Cascerceri, the PVCA gave its endorsement of the plans.

"We [thought] that Drexel was completely on our side to use this land as recreational, and we even gave them our full support," Biond said.

"We even wanted to work with Drexel on seeing how this project could come to fruition."

PVCA wrote another letter in October 1996 encouraging National Linen Services to sell the property to the University with the intended purposes of recreational uses for both the University and the Powelton Village community.

In late 1996, National Linen Services informed the University that the land might be used as a strip mall. However, the University, PVCA, Councilwomen Happy Fernandez and Councilwomen Jannie Blackwell all opposed the use of this land for non- recreational use.

According to Biond, the National Linen Services decided to sell the lot to the University in September 1997 with the intention of transforming the land into a "green multipurpose space for the Powelton Village community and Drexel University."

The idea to use the lot for recreational purposes was debated again in April 1998 when Drexel began to explore the option of creating prefabricated townhouses on the lot, due to the shortage of housing opportunities for students ("Prefab town houses considered by Drexel as housing option", The Triangle, April 10, 1998, Page One).

In a letter written to University President Constantine Papadakis, the PVCA expressed disappointment in Drexel's violation of its promise to use the land for recreational purposes.

"We were upset with Drexel not following their original agreement," PVCA Campus Community Committee Head Michael Jones said.

"Drexel not only violated the agreement, but they failed to inform the PVCA or the community about these plans. This behavior was very disheartening and disrespectful to the people living in Powelton Village."

"We feel that the Drexel students and neighbors in Powelton Village would love to see this land, considering its gorgeous view of the city skyline, to be used for recreational use," Biond said. "We will fight tooth and nail if Drexel continues to pursue townhouses."

In March 1999, Academic Properties Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University, released a Request for Proposal that would place an apartment/shared living complex on API owned property.

PVCA's former President Benjamin Dugan was invited to attend this meeting. In response to the RFP he wrote a letter to Senior Vice President of Student Life and Administrative Services Anthony Caneris expressing a potential alternative for the University to consider selling the property to a non-profit group to develop green space for recreational use.

Media Credit: Morgan Rossmair

The proposal was further accelerated in May 1999 when University administration proposed the townhouse plan at the weekly PVCA meeting.

"This was a very animated meeting," Jones recalled.

"Well over 200 neighbors were in attendance to see President Papadakis, Tony Caneris, Dianna Dale, Joe Cascerceri and many other Drexel administrators come to convince us to agree to their project. The meeting did not go very well as many neighbors voiced vehemently against this plan."

Later, in July 1999, Papadakis wrote a letter to Dugan, informing him that the University decided not to build on the lot as a result of the community voices and in order to maintain an effective relationship between the University and the community.

Since July 1999, few talks of pursuing the townhouse proposal have occurred.

PVCA still maintains that, if the issue is brought to their attention, they will fight against the use of townhouses on the lot.

"Drexel is not to be building outside the Institutional Building District, and if they did, they would be violating many agreements over the course of years," Biond said.

When asked if Drexel has plans to use this land for building townhouses, Director of Communications for Student Life and Administrative Services James Katsaounis said, "The University is always exploring opportunities to strategically purchase and develop properties for the betterment of the institution. Currently there are no official plans to develop the 32nd and Powelton Avenue lot. However, Drexel has internally discussed building a townhouse complex of approximately 50 units which house ideally house 6 persons per unit and include parking."

Katsaounis said that no developer has been contracted to construct the project, but the Planning, Design and Construction Department has developed preliminary design plans and explored potential construction designs and feasibility issues.

Students share a mixed view on the future of the lot.

"This lot should be used primarily for recreation use as already promised in the legal binding documents by Drexel," Siby Varghese, a pre-junior majoring in electrical engineering said. "This land can be used for basketball courts, soccer fields, green grass to be used for virtually anything. This is also by far one of the greatest places to view the city skyline. Face the facts here; Drexel does not have much of a campus. I strongly recommend them to use this land in the way that will benefit the quality of student life."

USGA School of Biomedical Engineering Senator Tejal Shah agrees with Drexel.

"Although the land should be used legally as recreational, Powelton Village people should take into consideration that Drexel is running out of housing opportunities for our many students that go here," Shah said.

Media Credit: Morgan Rossmair

"Drexel has promised guaranteed housing for all incoming students, and if they cannot honor this statement as a result of lack of housing then this will look bad for Drexel. Some parents want their students to be kept in university-run housing because of safety for their children in Philadelphia, which is susceptible to many kinds of criminal activity. If Drexel uses this land for university housing, then they are really serving the students," Shah said.

"We [PVCA] would love to have an effective voice in Drexel's planning committee that could enforce decisions, not just talking past each other as evidenced in this situation," Burlingame said. "It would be nice if PVCA and Drexel would just sit at a table and engage in a meaningful dialogue regarding such issues as the lot. This would ensure most effective communication between Drexel, Powelton Village residents and the students who live in this neighborhood."

PVCA meets are open to the public and are held on the third Monday of every month, except in July and August, at 7:30 p.m. in the Community Education Center, located at 3500 Lancaster Avenue.

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