2 WEEKLYPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • JUNE 12, 2013 Solutions for SLAPP Lawsuits continued from page 1


it from happening to other Registered Community Or- ganizations (RCO’s). And as Joe Schiavo, the former chair of the organization’s


liquor committee and vice chair of the development’s committee, told this reporter, Friday, June 7th


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geous for [the members of] an RCO to be slapped with a


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lawsuit when they’re merely doing their job.” Schiavo’s comments refer to an RCO’s review process when a de- veloper requests zoning vari- ances for new construction. Because Old City is located in a national historic district, the OCCA strived to make sure that developments requiring zoning variances didn’t clash with the surrounding neigh- borhood’s mass, scale and height, Schiavo explained. Before covering proposed solutions to the impact of SLAPP’s on RCO’s, we are going to review the cir- cumstances leading to the OCCA’s demise. According to Schiavo,


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there wasn’t one particular circumstance that lead to the OCCA’s disbanding. “In retrospect, it was an unfortu- nate set of circumstances.” To some, those circum- stances may have started with the now abandoned Philadelphia World Trade Center, a five-and-a-half acre complex of interna- tional commerce at Colum- bus Blvd. and Callowhill St. After the project was introduced in 2006, the city enacted an Old City


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Overlay District, which would have restricted the developer from construct- ing a project of that size on the waterfront. On a side note, the boundaries of the Old City Overlay District have since shifted. And the current mixed-use develop- ment proposed for Colum- bus Blvd and Callowhill Street is not included in the overlay district.


“The idea for the boundar- ies of the Old City District Overlay did not come from the OCCA but from the city,” Schiavo explained. “When Richard Thom (the former chair of the development committee) “received a call asking him if he had any objections to the overlay’s boundaries, he said he didn’t. But the idea didn’t come from the OCCA itself,” Schiavo emphasized. Nonetheless, in response to the overlay and other set backs, the developer of the Philadelphia World Trade Center sued the city, the OCCA and the River’s Edge. The River’s Edge, which didn’t have any insur- ance, had to disband, Schiavo noted.


It was the OCCA’s legal


problems, which led its former insurance carrier “to decide it wouldn’t renew our insurance,” Schiavo explained. Subsequently, the OCCA applied to ap- proximately 30 other insur- ance companies. Because its former insurance company dropped it for its legal prob- lems, only one of the 30 new


insurance companies made it an offer, Schiavo said. That insurance company carried a $50,000 deductible. More- over, that insurance company would only cover the OCCA if it refrained from comment- ing on land use or liquor applications. In other words, it would have prevented the OCCA from fulfilling its role as an RCO.


Not wanting to accept defeat, the OCCA made one last ditch effort to save itself. Board members looked in to whether or not their homeowner’s insur- ance would cover them as volunteers for a non-profit in the event of a lawsuit. “They all gave the uniform answer of ‘maybe’,” Schiavo said. In other words, each board member would be placing his or her individ- ual homes—or condos—at stake in the event of law- suit. The board held a vote. Since the majority voted against taking this kind of gamble, the OCCA had no other option but to disband. In the meantime, the OC-


CA’s former members are working towards protecting other RCO’s from SLAPP legislation. According to Schiavo,


there remain three viable alternatives.


The first entails having the city’s law department represent SLAPP-ed RCO’s. After all, the city law department is funded with taxpayer money, Schiavo noted.


The second alternative includes creating an insur- ance pool with other civic associations. Then there’s State Sena- tor Larry Farnese’s anti- SLAPP legislation. If en- acted, Farnese’s legislation would allow those who are wrongly sued to more eas- ily dismiss a case or recover attorney’s fees if they win the lawsuit. Twenty-seven states have


already passed anti-SLAPP legislation. In 2000, Penn- sylvania passed limited anti-SLAPP legislation that applies only to environ- mental law and regulatory processes. From Schiavo’s per- spective, RCO’s remain an imperative part of the zoning process. The Old City Business District will now act as the RCO for the neighborhood when it comes to land use and zon- ing. However, as a busi- ness district, it has differ- ent objectives than a civic association, Schiavo noted. Moreover, the boundaries for the Old City Business District aren’t as large as those for the former OCCA. Developers need- ing variances for projects not represented by the business district “might have to make their pre- sentations to Councilman Mark Squilla directly.” Stay-tuned to the Weekly


Press for updates on the curbing the impacts of SLAPP on RCO’s.


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ummer is quickly approaching for school-age children across the Delaware Valley and as many are looking forward to vacation, thousands of families are scram- bling to figure out how to put food on the table over the next few months. A fam- ily of four with two school-aged children who participate in the school meals program needs to provide 80 additional meals, equaling more than $200, every month this sum- mer which may not be feasible. Philabundance is in need of Hunger Heroes as we gear up to provide more meals this summer. We have put together a Hunger Heroes toolkit www.philabundance. org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Toolkit-6.6.13.pdf with ideas ranging from hold- ing food drives to a reading list with books for people of all ages to learn more about hunger. We also have resources for families who are in need of food assistance this summer.


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