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Hays residents protest

Friday, July 25, 2003

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Debate over coal mining and its side effects, including blasting, pollution and traffic, dominated a sometimes passionate Pittsburgh City Council hearing yesterday on the proposed redevelopment of a 635-acre site in the city's Hays neighborhood.

Beaver County developer Charles Betters wants to build a $500 million racetrack/retail/residential project on the undeveloped site overlooking the Monongahela River, adjacent to Baldwin Borough.

There are old mines under the site holding roughly 1 million tons of coal, which the developers say they have to remove to make way for the project. The city planning commission approved the excavation plan and now it is before council.

Residents had little to say about the racetrack. Betters plans to go ahead with his other redevelopment plans whether or not he receives the final state horse racing license currently available.

Six other track developers are competing for the license, with state lawmakers poised to legalize slot machines at the tracks.

Rather, most of the talk at the 3-1/2 hour hearing was about disruptions coal mining could cause to nearby neighborhoods. Baldwin residents and members of area environmental groups said the project would increase pollution, endanger properties through possible mine subsidence, increase traffic by construction trucks and development visitors and lower property values.

The planning commission has already required developers to stay off residential roads near the site, work only between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., maintain water trucks to control construction dust, reseed disrupted woodlands and not log the area. Those were among two dozen conditions it attached to its approval.

Much of the discussion at the hearing -- attended by about 50 people, most of them against the plan -- was about the blasting developers want to do to help excavate the site. Betters' lawyer, Donald P. Graham, said one-second underground blasts would occur a maximum of six times daily, and would be quieter over the long run than breaking up the ground with machines.

Residents didn't care.

"Let me tell you one thing," said Baldwin resident Susanne Majewski-Rock, who lives about a mile from the site. "I can hear trains [along] Carson Street. How do you think blasting will sound?"

There was also talk about money. Based on a rough estimate of $20 per ton of coal, the developers guessed they could earn $20 million from what they excavate. But according to Betters, he would not clear a profit, because excavating and hauling the coal would cost more than that.

They also speculated it would take 40,000 trips to haul 1 million tons of coal away from the site, probably to a power plant. The hauling would take about 18 months.

Graham seemed exasperated by the mining complaints. Mining is allowed in the site's zoning district and old mines are common in a region with such a long mining history. Developers are required to get mining permits to dig into land that was once explored by coal miners, he said.

"I had no choice on this. I had to get a mining permit. ... It's just a fact of life," Graham said at the end of the session.

Council members are in a quasi-judicial role in the matter; rejecting the mining authorization will require six of the nine members to vote negatively. They cannot say publicly how they will vote, but Tucker Sciulli, who represents the site and adjacent city neighborhoods, knew many of the people at the session and urged other residents to call his office.

"This is a tough issue. Anybody who doesn't say that is lying," said Councilman William Peduto, who asked developers several questions on environmental impacts of the project.

Council has 45 days to vote on the proposal.

Correction/Clarification: (Published July 26, 2003) A headline yesterday on a story about a Pittsburgh City Council hearing on proposed development at a site in Hays incorrectly reflected what happened at the hearing. Many Baldwin Borough residents expressed concern over plans to use explosives to excavate the site and open it for coal mining. C.J. Betters wants to extract the coal before building a racetrack/residential/retail complex.