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SugarHouse Ruling Prompts Call for Action

PHILADELPHIA-Four lawmakers say the state Supreme Court erred in granting riparian rights to the planned casino project on the Delaware waterfront.

By Paul Bubny | Updated on August 27, 2008

PHILADELPHIA-The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the SugarHouse project isn’t the end of the story, say four state legislators who oppose the casino’s planned location on the Delaware waterfront. In a prepared statement, the lawmakers, all of whom represent districts along the waterfront, say they plan to turn the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s attention to the matter this fall, and also plan to seek federal review of the state court’s decision.

“The judicial branch obviously overstepped its bounds in this case,” says state Rep. Mike O’Brien in the statement. The court’s Aug. 22 ruling found that then-Mayor John Street acted properly last December in granting riparian rights via a “submerged lands license” to HSP Gaming LP, developer of the SugarHouse project. Conversely, the court determined that the current mayor, Michael Nutter, erred in revoking SugarHouse’s riparian rights on grounds that only the General Assembly has authority to approve the lease of submerged waterfront land to private entities.

The four lawmakers—O’Brien, state Rep. William Keller and state Sens. Vince Fumo and Mike Stack—say they’re particularly troubled by the court’s claim that the submerged lands license cannot be revoked. “It is a contradiction to say that the city has the authority vested in it to give the license but not take it away,” says O’Brien in the statement. “If that is really true, then no one has the authority to protect the public interest.”

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