South Philly residents demand input in redevelopment of refinery site
Community organizers are asking the refinery's new owner, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, to enter into a community benefits agreement: "We want to be at the table."
As the now-shuttered Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery is redeveloped, South Philadelphia residents are asking for a say in the process and benefits for the community.
Members of a 22-organization neighborhood coalition called on the refinery’s new owner, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, to negotiate an agreement that would require the company to provide benefits to the surrounding neighborhoods.
Rallying in front of the former refinery site Thursday afternoon, the activists said HRP had not committed to making the community benefits agreement, commonly known as a CBA, after several discussions with the group, the United South/Southwest Coalition.
After suffering decades of pollution from the former refinery, residents from the surrounding neighborhoods — largely working-class people of color, many of whom have had cancer, asthma, and other health problems they link to the refinery’s hazardous emissions — say they want to ensure the redevelopment of the 1,300-acre property benefits the community and doesn’t leave them out of the process.
“We want to be at the table,” said Earl Wilson of the Eastwick Friends and Neighbors Coalition, one of the member organizations. The agreement, he added, would “ensure transparency and accountability during the redevelopment.”
The residents waved signs and chanted in front of the fenced-off refinery property, visible from West Passyunk Avenue. They unfurled a banner that read “Philly is fed up with disrespectful development.” Behind them, on the other side of the fence, a Hilco billboard made a promise: “Sustainable development for the community.”
Hilco Redevelopment Partners bought the property in 2020, after the refinery shut down following the June 2019 explosion and fire on site. HRP plans to clean it up and put e-commerce, logistics, and life sciences businesses on the vast site, which it named the Bellwether District. The company signaled it was open to a CBA but wanted direction from Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, whose district includes the refinery, WHYY reported in December.
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Jasmine Sessoms, HRP’s senior vice president for corporate affairs, said Thursday the company “remained committed to a CBA” and wanted community input. She said HRP was waiting to receive the coalition’s list of demands, and she noted that the company had made community donations and set up a program to provide training and internships to city students.
“Tell me what you guys want. I’m open for a CBA,” Sessoms said she told the residents at the rally. “Let’s go for it. Send us the demands.”
After meetings between the coalition and HRP, coalition organizers in mid-March sent an open letter to HRP laying out requests for starting the CBA negotiation process.
“We have yet to get an agreement to the process, and yet the redevelopment continues to move forward,” said James Gitto, president of West Passyunk Neighbors Association. “We believe Hilco and the city are poised to be who they say they are. … We are here today to ask all parties to practice what they preach and take action.”
Developers aren’t required to enter into CBAs, but proponents of the agreements see them as a potentially powerful tool for preventing detrimental side effects of development, such as gentrification. They’ve been used elsewhere in the city, including for the Schuylkill Yards development and SugarHouse Casino, essentially creating contracts between developers and community groups that require a developer to provide benefits, amenities, or mitigations to the surrounding area.
» READ MORE: What contamination lurks on — and under — shuttered South Philly refinery
Hilco Redevelopment Partners has promised the Bellwether District project will be “a global model” for sustainable development, bring thousands of jobs, and be an economic driver for the city.
The community activists say they want to see proof.
“They said they was going to adopt the community. When they gon’ do it?” said Shawmar Pitts, member of the Grays Ferry-based group Philly Thrive. “We want y’all to be part of the community like y’all said y’all was gon’ be. That’s all we want. We don’t want no more than that. Because time after time, for generations long, we been left out.”
The refinery emitted hazardous chemicals, including cancer-causing benzene, at higher-than-acceptable levels, leaving residents to bear the health costs. Residents blame the pollution for elevated rates of cancer, asthma, and other diseases in the community.
“We have suffered so long from this refinery,” said Betty Beaufort, of Friends of Queen Memorial Library in Point Breeze. “We have a chance now to represent ourselves and be at the table so we don’t go through the same stuff we’ve been going through all our lives.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.