Chelten Plaza Protesters Take to the Street

Reaction to a hard-charging developer who has already started construction at Chelten and Pulaski in Germantown has increased in intensity over the months since the undisclosed deal with the political establishment first surfaced.

A vote to oppose within the Germantown Community Connection has been followed by formal opposition from West Central Germantown Neighbors, Greater Germantown Business Association, Liberation Fellowship Community Development Corporation, Historic Germantown Properties, S & T Enterprises LLC, plus hundreds of local residents who have appeared at community meetings.

The vast majority of whom have aggressively gone on the record in opposition to the combination low-end food store, dollar store and the entire development itself on the grounds it does not reflect what the community was promised in 2006 and is far from the best use of this key central Germantown site.

Germantown Cares has been an outgrowth of these community-based efforts to get the attention of our elected leadership, who have been noticeably absent (except one), and to attract volunteers from the above groups.

For the past three weeks, these volunteers have assembled on the four corners of Chelten and Pulaski, and at the adjacent Chelten Ave SEPTA station between 4 and p.m. which is prime commuter time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Informing passers-by, existing commuters and folks in cars that pull over, the message is clear. Stop this project, research the permits and licenses, explain the public funding, and most of all, start over with a plan that respects Germantown and uses this property to a much better advantage.

Young and old have participated. Petition signatures are mounting aimed at everyone from the Governor on down.  Individual postcards are distributed pre-addressed to the mayor and Governor Corbett demanding we know more about how this was done and why the community had not one minute’s input prior to demolition and now construction.

While the community was informed in 2006 when this developer got public money and tax abatements for this very site in exchange for specific work and a defined time frame, the community never saw that happen. Returning now with a down-graded plan and secretly promised even more public money, Pulaski R.E. Partners has unified Germantown and nearby interested parties in activism not seen here in years.

Jim Foster

Publisher/Editor