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This time, the agenda boiled down to water — and a buffer.
Yet another casino showdown at Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Columbus Blvd., Sept. 11 focused on riparian rights — which concerns all land situated on the bank of any body of water — and a bill sponsored by state Rep. Babette Josephs mandating a 1,500-foot buffer between slots parlors and residential areas.
The House Gaming Oversight Committee held the public hearings, the first at 9:30 a.m. with riparian rights testimony from state Reps. Bill Keller and Mike O’Brien, both members of the committee. The state’s Department of General Services Secretary James Creedon and Philadelphia City Solicitor Romulo Diaz Jr., along with Foxwoods’ attorney Jeff Rotwitt, also testified.
Keller and O’Brien argued Foxwoods must obtain riparian rights from the state to build, and those rights are from high-water to low-water marks, Keller said. To prove their point, the men used a city map from 1830 showing the Foxwoods’ site was covered by the Delaware River and therefore under state control.
"All that land over the years [around the Foxwoods site and Penn’s Landing] has been filled in [with residential and commercial construction] but the state still owns the riverbed. They own the riparian rights. You cannot transfer or build unless the state gives you the right to do that," Keller told the Review.
The only way to secure the transfer would be a bill introduced to and then approved by the General Assembly, Keller said.
About six years ago, Keller introduced such a bill for Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC) on behalf of Parcel 9A at the Navy Yard. When the bill passed, 40 acres that once belonged to the Navy Yard were transferred to PIDC. "[Foxwoods] needs an act of the legislature to get those riparian lands. They need this to get [their project] done," Keller said.
Rejecting the state’s argument, Rotwitt cited the Dam Safety and Encroachment Law of 1940, where the federal government through action of the U.S. secretary of war defined the state’s riparian land as extending from pier-head line to bulkhead line. Under that law, the casino group would not be required to secure riparian rights.
"It is our position that the riparian rights standard we are using is the same one that has been applied to nearly all other conveyances along the Delaware River. We are confident in our position that our project does not require us to receive riparian rights," Foxwoods spokeswoman Maureen Garrity of Tierney Communications told the Review.
Keller accused Foxwoods "of trying to muddy the waters. That is the law they are going by and they say they don’t have to get riparian rights, but they are arguing the wrong law that has nothing to do with riparian rights."
If the casino group tries to proceed without securing the rights, Keller told the Review the state would take them to court.
At 1 p.m., the second public hearing began with Josephs testifying about her House Bill 1477, introduced in early June that would require a 1,500-foot buffer zone between a gaming establishment and schools, homes, churches and playgrounds.
Though Josephs voted for gaming at the state level three years ago, she said she regrets the decision. "The majority of the House and the Senate voted for this and the governor signed it. No one person did this to Philadelphia. I think that the majority of delegates from Philadelphia voted for this because I don’t think that any of us, including the people of Philadelphia, knew what the gambling interests had in store for us," Josephs said before adding, "Had I known what they had in mind, I would not have voted. Truthfully, we underestimated the repercussions of the casino developers."
First District Councilman Frank DiCicco also provided testimony in support of the bill, which mimics one he introduced in Council June 13.
"After holding the front lines, it’s nice to see the state sent in reinforcements," DiCicco said at the Sept. 11 meeting.
The councilman’s bill also would affect SugarHouse in the Fishtown section, the second slots parlor in his district and the other one awarded a gaming license from the state. "It would essentially kill the two casino proposals," DiCicco’s legislative aide Brian Abernathy told the Review regarding both buffer bills. According to Abernathy, DiCicco’s bill is still in committee and will be heard Sept. 26. However, the Supreme Court’s opinion this summer regarding the referendum made it clear a buffer enacted by Council would be struck down and legislation must be enacted on the state level, Abernathy said.
The next step for House Bill 1477 is it needs to get voted out of the Gaming Oversight Committee, chaired by state Rep. Harold James, Josephs said, adding James is responsible for scheduling that meeting which she believes will happen in the coming months. Once it gets out of committee, it goes to the House, then the Senate.
But according to Abernathy, "The governor already promised to veto the thing." While Josephs said she has "heard that," she doesn’t see it as a roadblock.
"If we get it past both Houses and we have the majority, that makes a whole big difference when it gets in front of [Rendell]," Josephs said. "This is such a volatile issue on all sides. In the end, I believe that we are going to convince the developers and the government that they cannot do business in this city because 85 to 90 percent of the people are hostile to casinos."
The second public hearing closed with Ed Kirlin and Rene Goodwin testifying.
Goodwin and Kirlin are the two Pennsport delegates of the Delaware River Neighborhood Alliance, an anti-casino group comprised of 24 neighborhoods from as far away as Chestnut Hill. The 250,000 member-strong organization represents people opposed to gaming in the city of Philadelphia, not just the Foxwoods and SugarHouse locations, Goodwin said. "It isn’t just a waterfront issue and it’s not just a Philadelphia issue," she said of casinos coming to the area.
One of the points Goodwin pushed in her testimony was the crime rate in the city and the threat of increases when casinos move in. Citing national studies and statistics, Goodwin maintains there is a direct correlation between casinos and crime, and given Philadelphia’s egregious murder rate, Goodwin thinks casinos are a gamble our town can’t afford to take. Using East St. Louis as an example, Goodwin said larceny increased 65 percent and theft, seven percent when casinos came into that area.
"Across the board there will be an increase in crime. Statistic after statistic has proven the closer [casinos] are, the higher the numbers. Although there will be security at the casinos, it is not their responsibility to monitor three, four blocks away and that’s where the crap is going to hit the fan," Goodwin told the Review.
Goodwin also pointed out the SugarHouse site is 400 feet from the Northern Liberties neighborhood and Foxwoods is 200 feet from Pennsport. "No place in the United States is a casino 200 to 400 feet away [from a residential area]. Absolutely nowhere," Goodwin said.
After public testimony, Goodwin, Kirlin and others took two of Josephs’ staffers on a tour of the SugarHouse and Foxwoods sites "to give them a very clear understanding of the proximity of homes to the sites," Goodwin said.
Casino-Free Philadelphia spokesman Dan Hunter also attended the meeting and seemed pleased the dialogue is continuing. "The fact that a state government is publicly reopening the question of casino locations is a first step. But the politicians virtually told us they’ll only fight as far as we stand up and voice our opinions. They want the pressure to be off them and us to let them off the hook — we have to do the opposite," he told the Review.
