I am an attorney assisting several residents in southwest Philly as they address several urban planning/neighborhood revitalization issues. I have run into three issues that I am unable to help these residents with. So, if anyone of you out there know of someone who may have some advice or contact info, I would greatly appreciate it. The issues are as follows:
1. Several residents want to move abandoned homes on their block to sheriff's sale, but squattors have been fraudulently renewing the deceased owner's Seniors Property Tax Assistance Application, thus preventing the property from being certified. Nobody, not even the City's Managing Director's Office can find a way to address these fraudulent applications. 2. Other residents have houses in their neighborhood that were deeded to current owners by the Redevelopment Authority, with deeds that have current covenants requiring the owners to bring the property up to code within a year, keep it that way for the next five years, not rent any interest in the property, etc. These owners have violated almost every single one of these covenants, and continue to violate them, creating a serious burden on their row house neighbors. The RDA is supposed to investigate these situations and do something about them, but, as with the first issue, no city office will take the responsibility to enforce the covenants and the law here. The RDA and Housing have been especially gifted lately at avoiding pursuing the issue, using a myriad of excuses, including the recent layoffs.
3. MANY other residents, who are neighbors of many Neighborhood Restoration properties, have complained about the unsafe conditions created by their contractors, about the vandalism and harassment committed by the properties tenants, and about their tenants selling drugs from the property. Their officers constantly fail to respond to my calls, with one of their executive officers, James Levin, telling me that Southwest Philly is the "real world" where residents "just have to deal with it". Neighborhood Restorations was invited into this community by Councilwoman Blackwell, who assisted them greatly (even though they themselves owe delinquent property taxes) in obtaining the 700 plus tax-delinquent/abandoned properties that they now own in her "territory". What kind of efforts can residents now take to regain control of this "urban planning" failure and set it on the correct path?
I appreciate any info or advice any of you can give on any of these issues. Thanks! (and you can email me directly (confidentially) at viragods@hotmail.com).

This is an old, old story in West Philly/SW Philly. As Blackwell will brag to almost anyone who asks "Nobody pushes through more eminent domains through the RDA than I do." Unfortunately district councilpeople have built into the city charter an almost unlimited pwoer to stop or start eminent domains at the RDA with a phone call with virtually no accountability to the surrounding community or even the most basic standards of good planning. No transparency in terms of telling the neighbors what the plan is, a bare minimum of planning paperwork made available to the public.

Its a perfect situaiton for district councilpeople to "load up" preferred developers, politically connected CDCs that seem to exist only on paper - whatever as long as you can pitch the end project nominally as in the publics interest - its a great tool for district councilpeople to reward political "friends".

Check for a PM from me.

__________________
A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

Since we are on the topic (sort of), does anyone know if it is possible to acquire properties owned by the Redevelopment Authority,? If so, what is the mechanism to do so, for a normal, non-politically connected person?

In theory the RDA is only supposed to take land that is slotted for a specific use and in compliance with certain planning goals - to provide space for a needed social service or to encourage eonomic growth if the land is sold to a private business. In practice once an area has been declared "blighted" which huge swaths of city has been (somebody once told me 75% of the city) and that declaration has no "time limit" - once "blighted" always blighted apparently, a district councilperson can order the RDA to start taking the land at almost anytime with just a phone call and there is no "ethics law" that requires the RDA to see if the district councilperson has recieved campaign contributions from the developer they are being ordered to steer the land to.

Beyond that some district councilpeople have a huge habit of starting the process for projects that don't have their funding or plans fully worked out willy-nilly. The CDC or developer falls short in fundraising or changes plans and the abdonned property sits in legal limbo - half way through the process of being processed by the RDA legal department - for literally decades. Its actually kind of a handy bargaining chip for the councilperson going into the future. Maybe a new developer will come down the road in a couple of years and you suddenly have a valueable "favor" on ice to proffer in trade. It runs the neighborhood down but it sure is useful for getting reelected.

So in a word, No. You can't just buy property from the RDA because they are not supposed to begin the process of taking the property without a final use in mind but in practice the plans may have changed and then the district councilperson can direct the RDA to sell it to you if they can sell it as "community development" on some level. The process of taking a property by eminent domain is a very expensive, drawn out legal process. The government isn't supposed to undertake it without a solid "plan" - of course in Philly whats supposed to happen, rarely does.

On a practical level you might in reality be able to "buy" an RDA property that has lost its original "plan" but you will only be able to get it because the district councilperson calls the RDA and says they should sell it to you.

__________________
A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

If you are willing to do a lot of work, here are your solutions as you had numbered the issues:

1. Declaratory judgment action seeking to declare the applications to be invalid.

2. Mandamus action to compel the RDA to perform the ministerial act of enforcing the obviously violated covenants (you may first need to get L&I to actually certify the violations and then compel the RDA through a mandamus action to do something about it).

3. Private criminal complaints.

Good luck.

PS: I'll pass along to you something I learned long ago in my now retirement from the practice of law: if you are in the right and you keep pushing, there is always a way. It may take a lot of time and effort, but eventually there is always a way. You don't take shi_t, you give it to those who deserve it.