Warren residents file lawsuit to stop senior housing project

The building located at 231-237 Pennsylvania Ave. in Warren.

State officials have 21 days to respond to a lawsuit filed earlier this week seeking to overturn state and federal funding approvals for a contested senior housing project in Warren.

Warren residents David Winans, Ronald Peterson, Philip Caudill, Wendy McCain and Kevin Sheldon filed a federal lawsuit in Western District Court against Adrianne Todman, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Development. urban development, and Rick Siger, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community. and Economic Development, as well as the two official agencies.

Winans, Peterson, Caudill, McCain and Sheldon oppose a proposal by the Hudson Companies to build the Eagles Crest housing project at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Liberty Street. The project involves demolishing a property located at 231-237 Pennsylvania Ave., which Warren residents say is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“The demolition of 231-237 Pennsylvania Avenue will not only result in the irreplaceable loss of Warren’s only surviving example of single-story Beaux Arts style architecture, but will also inflict serious and lasting effects on the character, community and economy of Warren and will jeopardize the continued continued listing of the Warren Historic District on the National Register,” attorney Michael Agresti of the Erie law firm Marsh Schaaf wrote in the lawsuit.

In addition to the court’s attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses, Winans, Peterson, Caudill, McCain and Sheldon ask the court to declare that the Department of Community and Economic Development’s approval of the project and its financing State and federal HUD violates the National Environmental Policy Act. and regulations of the National Historic Preservation Act; that the State and federal agency violated their obligation to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to assess the potential adverse effects of the project and by failing to resolve the adverse effects of the project housing on historic properties; order the state and federal agency to rescind any decision authorizing federal funding for the Eagle Crest project; direct the agencies to rescind the memorandum of understanding that terminated the consultations required by section 106 of the NHPA and to restart such consultations; stop any construction that has already started until the section 106 process is completed again; and grant temporary or permanent injunctions requested by city residents.

City residents argue that Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies to consider a project’s effect on historic neighborhoods or properties. The Warren Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, with the Eagle Crest Project properties allegedly notable because of its commercial history and available adaptive reuse as an example of Beaux Arts style architecture – a style known for its large and imposing facades and impressive entrances.

Hudson Companies is proposing to demolish the structure to build a four- or five-story building with 40 senior housing units. Winans, Peterson, Caudill, McCain and Sheldon argue that the project is unnecessary, dispute that the city of Warren sold the land to Hudson Companies for $5,000 without offering it for sale to the public and that neither State DCED nor federal HUD required the developer to consider alternative sites.

The lawsuit alleges that the agencies failed to adequately consider the views of consulted parties throughout the consultation process required under Section 106, failed to comply with Right to Information requests de Winans, Peterson, Caudill, McCain and Sheldon, did not consult with Native American tribes, and did not take into account the effect that the senior housing project would have on the historic Warren neighborhood because the agencies did not failed, in the plaintiffs’ view, to assess potential negative economic effects, including loss of property value and tourism revenue.

“Demolition of 231-237 Pennsylvania Avenue would not only result in the loss of one of the most unique historic buildings in the Warren Historic District, but would also allow for the visual intrusion of a massive, out-of-scale, unrelated new building with the historical heritage of Warren, » the lawsuit states. “The project will also visually sever Warren’s historic ties to the Allegany River, an important part of the context, setting and atmosphere of the Warren Historic District, thereby directly harming the integrity of the Warren Historic District in multiple ways .”

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