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Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority logo | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1945 |
Type | Redevelopment authority |
Jurisdiction | City and County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Headquarters | 1234 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA |
Agency executives |
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Key document |
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Website | https://www.philadelphiaredevelopmentauthority.org/ |
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) was created by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Urban Redevelopment Law of 1945. [1] Until the Fall of 2011 it was known as the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia (RDA).
The PRA focuses on planning and developing balanced mixed-use communities to create thriving, well-served neighborhoods. As the public government agency charged with the redevelopment of the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority provides the foundations that enable private investors to revitalize neighborhoods. The Authority's function is to acquire real estate using the power of eminent domain, plan for redevelopment working with private firms, and financing the redevelopment by issuing municipal bonds of the Authority, with the overall objective of eliminating urban blight in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [1]
The Authority is governed by a five-member board, appointed by the mayor of Philadelphia. The board has the following members: [2]
Anne Fadullon, Chair
James J. Cuorato, Vice Chair
Cynthia Figueroa, 2nd Vice Chair & Assistant Secretary
Duane Bumb, Secretary
Rob Dubow, Treasurer
The University City Science Center filed a lawsuit to stop the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority from seizing two parcels of land in the 3800 block of Market Street in West Philadelphia. [3] The lawsuit was filed on May 28, 2010.
On September 28, 2009, the Authority found the Science Center to be in default of an agreement about the two parcels of land, currently used for parking. The Science Center contended in its lawsuit that current economic conditions had delayed redevelopment, saying that the apparent default was caused by an unforeseeable cause, and therefore should not be grounds for taking the land.
From 2012 to 2014, Dupree Studios in the Mantua community of West Philadelphia was the subject of an eminent domain takeover attempt by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, which ended with Dupree keeping his studio. [4] [5] [6]
Ardmore is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Delaware and Montgomery counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The population was 12,455 at the 2010 census. Ardmore is a suburb on the west side of Philadelphia, within Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County and Haverford Township in Delaware County. Originally named "Athensville" in 1853, the community and its railroad station were renamed "Ardmore" in 1873 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, on whose Main Line, west out of Philadelphia, Ardmore sits at Milepost 8.5.
Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in many countries, including the United States. The original intent of a TIF program is to stimulate private investment with a blighted area that has been designated to be in need of economic revitalization. Similar or related value capture strategies are used around the world.
University City is the easternmost portion of West Philadelphia, encompassing several Philadelphia universities. It is situated directly across the Schuylkill River from Center City.
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.
Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that interpreted the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court voted 8–0 to hold that private property could be taken for a public purpose with just compensation. The case laid the foundation for the Court's later important public use cases, Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984) and Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005).
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), Pub.L. 106–274 (text)(pdf), codified as 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq., is a United States federal law that prohibits the imposition of burdens on the ability of prisoners to worship as they please and gives churches and other religious institutions a way to avoid zoning law restrictions on their property use. It also defines the term "religious exercise" to include "any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief." RLUIPA was enacted by the United States Congress in 2000 to correct the problems of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993. The act was passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate by unanimous consent in voice votes, meaning that no objection was raised to its passage, so no written vote was taken. The S. 2869 legislation was enacted into law by the 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton on September 22, 2000.
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development. In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified private redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Pacific Park is a mixed-use commercial and residential development project by Forest City Ratner that will consist of 17 high-rise buildings, under construction in Prospect Heights, adjacent to Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, and Fort Greene in Brooklyn, New York City. The project overlaps part of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area, but also extends toward the adjacent brownstone neighborhood. Of the 22-acre (8.9 ha) project, 8.4 acres (3.4 ha) is located over a Long Island Rail Road train yard. A major component of the project is the Barclays Center sports arena, which opened on September 21, 2012. Formerly named Atlantic Yards, the project was renamed by the developer in August 2014 as part of a rebranding.
Black Bottom was a predominantly African American and poor neighborhood in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which was mostly razed for urban renewal in the 1960s.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial developments.
The San Francisco Transit Center District Plan is a massive redevelopment plan for the neighborhood surrounding the Salesforce Transit Center site, South of Market near the Financial District in San Francisco. The new Salesforce Transit Center has replaced the since-demolished San Francisco Transbay Terminal, and new skyscrapers, such as Salesforce Tower, take advantage of the height increases allowed through the Transit Center District Plan. The sale of several land parcels formerly owned by the state and given to the managing Transbay Joint Powers Authority helped finance the construction of the Transit Center.
Darrell L. Clarke is an American politician serving as president of the Philadelphia City Council since 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, he has represented the fifth district since 1999, which encompasses North Central Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion, Lower Hunting Park, Ludlow, Yorktown, West Poplar, Fairhill, Brewerytown, Francisville, Spring Garden, Fairmount, Logan Square, and parts of Northwood, Fishtown, Northern Liberties and Center City.
Chris Norby is an American politician and educator. He served on the Fullerton City Council (1984–2002) including three years as mayor, on the Orange County Board of Supervisors (2003–2010), on the California State Assembly (2010–2012).
The University City Science Center (UCSC) is the first and largest urban research park in the United States. It was established in 1963, within the demolished Black Bottom neighborhood of Philadelphia, now known as University City. It provides technology commercialization resources to entrepreneurs, and programs that nurture and sustain new technology businesses, convenes the innovation community and aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs through hands-on learning and career exposure.
Gentrification is the improvement of a neighborhood as new, and typically more affluent, people move in. It is often criticized because the current residents have limited options to buy or rent equivalent housing in alternative areas at the same price. If they stay, prices for products, services, and taxes rise and existing social networks are disturbed. Gentrification is the opposite of white flight—when residents voluntarily move away as a neighborhood declines.
University City High School was a public secondary school in the University City section of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, which operated from 1972 to 2013.
Eminent domain in the United States refers to the power of a state or the federal government to take private property for public use while requiring "just" compensation to be given to the original owner. It can be legislatively delegated by the state to municipalities, government subdivisions, or even to private persons or corporations, when they are authorized to exercise the functions of public character.
James Dupree is an American artist, educator, and activist. He has received both fellowships and artist's residencies in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and Wales, as well as various awards, including the Living Legend Award of the Black Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania. From 2012 to 2014, Dupree Studios in the Mantua community of West Philadelphia was the subject of an eminent domain takeover attempt by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA), which ended with Dupree keeping his studio.
Aztec Inn is a motel and casino located on 0.89 acres (0.36 ha) of land at 2200 South Las Vegas Boulevard, north of the Las Vegas Strip, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The property is located south of the Stratosphere hotel-casino, and includes a nearby apartment complex connected to the Aztec Inn.
The Parcel C protests were a community organized grassroots movement in the Chinatown of Boston, Massachusetts let by the Coalition to Protect Parcel C for Chinatown, which formed in response to the 1993 deal between Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and New England Medical Center (NEMC) to create a hospital parking garage in Chinatown. The space in question, named Parcel C, is a small plot of land bordered by Oak Street, Nassua Street, May Place, and Ash Street. The surrounding areas were primarily residential, with a day care center directly adjacent to the plot, which raised health and safety concerns. The protest helped bring awareness to environmental injustice in urban cities and cultivated systems and methods for successful activism in a non-English speaking community.
The science center, based at 37th and Market streets, has filed a lawsuit to block the RDA from seizing control of two undeveloped parcels on the center's West Philadelphia campus.