Monthly Archives: January 2012

On Wednesday, the current and former owners of a Montgomery County Superfund site agreed to pay $2.1 million in past cleanup costs to resolve action taken by the Environmental Protection Agency. The site reportedly hosted the manufacture of tires and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic resins. The companies also agreed to accept responsibility for future cleanup costs at the site, which is located in Lower Pottsgrove Township.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the American Eagle Savings Bank was closed last Friday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The Boothwyn-based bank had had $19.6 million in total assets and $17.7 million in deposits at the end of the third quarter of 2011.

On Tuesday, environmental groups met in Harrisburg to speak out against legislation that would remove zoning authority from local municipalities with respect to natural gas drilling. We have previously written about the legislation on this blog.

A small number of investment groups are taking advantage of the high demand but low competition in the area of charter school development. One such group, a joint venture of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors LLC and former tennis champion Andre Agassi, has taken on projects in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, and is currently considering similar projects in other cities, including New York and Houston.

On Monday, the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, as well as the group Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy put on a conference with the goal of establishing a consortium dedicated to collecting and analyzing scientific data on the effects of shale gas development on the public.

On December 22, 2011, Mayor Michael Nutter signed Philadelphia’s new zoning code. We have previously mentioned the new code on this blog, and pointed out that it is intended to replace the old one, which had been recognized as cumbersome, outdated and economically stagnating for the city of Philadelphia.

According to the Charleston Gazette, over 700 Teamster pipeline construction workers will be walking off their jobs following failed negotiations regarding proposed changes to the Pipe Line Contractors Association’s retirement programs. Around 200 workers-whose contracts expired on December 31-will come from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to a spokesman from Teamsters.

In our previous post, we began recounting the various development projects that have been planned in the last year. We have already mentioned the city-wide comprehensive plan that was adopted back in June, individual district development plans, and plans for the Central Delaware Waterfront.