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Revised proposal would be kinder to Harmar's Deer Creek
Monday, February 05, 2001 By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A Texas developer has floated a revised proposal to build the $169 million Deer Creek Crossing commercial complex in Harmar -- one that doesn't mess with the creek quite so much.
The state Department of Environmental Protection rejected a permit for the 1.2 million-square-foot retail-hotel-theater project last October after the developer refused to change plans that called for rerouting 2,700 feet of the popular fishing creek around the perimeter of the property and burying the present stream channel and more than six acres of wetlands under 8.5 million cubic yards of rock and dirt fill.
The altered plan, which calls for construction of canyon-like walls along the existing creek and slightly down-sizes the project, was discussed in recent meetings held to try to settle the politically well-connected developer's appeal of the state permit denial.
"The developer contacted us to see what changes would make his plan acceptable to us," said Betsy Mallison, a DEP spokeswoman. "He is now (discussing) not moving the stream."
Mallison refused to discuss details of the new proposal or the department's position on it because of the developer's pending permit appeal before the state Environmental Hearing Board. She said the negotiations are not unusual because the DEP regularly works to settle permit decision appeals.
A spokeswoman for Joseph S. Howell III, the Woodmont executive who leads the Orix-Woodmont development partnership, declined comment Friday.
The developer has met with the DEP twice in recent weeks. A third negotiating session is scheduled for Thursday. Invited to that meeting are representatives of PennFuture, Pennsylvania Trout Inc., the Penns Woods West chapter of Trout Unlimited and Clean Water Action. All are opponents of the development and have been granted intervener status in the developer's appeal to the state Environmental Hearing Board.
Joe Pugach, southwest regional vice president of Pennsylvania Trout and a director of the local Trout Unlimited chapter, said he doesn't expect any of the groups to be sympathetic to the revised plan which spares the stream channel but still wipes out the creek's flood plain and adjacent wetlands.
"The DEP gave the developer plenty of time to make changes before denying the original permit application and so now they're playing games," Pugach said. "Whatever they're proposing now has to be an artifice. I don't see how they can't affect the creek even if they leave it in its same channel."
The 375-acre, pie slice-shaped property is owned by Pittsburgh businessman W. Duff McCrady. The valley land, bisected by the meandering creek and pocked with more than 10 acres of wetlands, is bounded by the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Route 28 and Route 910 -- major thoroughfares that boost the commercial value of the property.
Harmar Township, the Allegheny Valley School District and Allegheny County favor the project, which would provide increased tax revenues to each entity.
Since Deer Creek Crossing was first proposed in the summer of 1999, the developer has solicited support for the project from Gov. Tom Ridge and met with DEP Secretary James Seif and the staffs of Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Swissvale, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas. In addition, County Chief Executive Jim Roddey, Santorum and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, have written letters urging approval, and Santorum requested a meeting with the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year to discuss the service's concerns.
Howell, a resident of Texas, also contributed money to several local Pennsylvania politicians.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Fish and Boat Commission have objected to the project because of the property's ecological and recreational values.
Seven wetlands on the site were called "the best examples of flood plain forest and healthy marsh in the county" in a 1994 review by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
And a stream survey of aquatic life in the section of creek that would be affected by the development done late last summer found 19 species of fish, including several game fish, indicative of good water quality and habitat.
The developer's permit application and subsequent environmental assessment sought to portray the creek as degraded by mine acid and substantially different than other, up-stream sections where a 1995 aquatic survey found 21 fish species.
"I still have a hard time believing a project of this magnitude will not impact a lot of the natural resources down there," said Carlos Escalante, a Trout Unlimited board member who plans to attend the Thursday meeting.
The developer has tried to justify the public funding by claiming that Route 910 -- which now slices around the property in a steep banana curve -- has been the site of "numerous recent fatal accidents." But state Department of Transportation records from 1989 to last summer show one fatal accident in the area, on Route 28, on June 2, 1994.
Mallison said that even if the DEP, the developer and the intervening groups agree to settle the appeal, the developer would have to file a new application for a permit if its development proposal has changed.
"Right now we don't have one, but a new application would start the process all over again," she said. "We'd have to start over from square one."
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