A little over a month ago, residents of Valley Greene condominiums on Wissahickon Avenue watched as a man drove a U-Haul truck down the gravel driveway beside their building, turned, and then dumped a huge pile of construction debris onto the forested land behind it. Then he stomped his foot on the gas, spitting gravel onto their property as he floored it out of there.

"He barreled, he was like a bat out of hell," said Nick Mulcahy, who called the police after it happened. "I had run out of the building with my camera phone trying to get a picture of the license plate, but I was just a little late. He just tore up the access road."

A growing problem

While this incident – which happened in broad daylight – was bolder than most, it was also just one of many. Since the summer, trucks have been pulling behind the building to dump all sorts of trash, residents say, from contractor waste to restaurant supply bins. There's now enough of it piled up that they have multiple mounds of debris spread out across what had been a nice green view. They contain such diverse items as scrap metal, dry-wall and a variety of mattresses, which stick out of the heavy brush that surrounds them.

"When I bought the apartment, one of the reasons I wanted it was because of the view. You looked out and onto a backyard that was woods and brush land," Mulcahy told the Local. "It's abundant with wildlife. It's got all sorts of birds, and I see deer out there regularly. I've seen a fox sleeping on top of the trash heap on the mattress."

An unresponsive neighbor

Valley Greene, dwarfed by the art-deco towers of Alden Park, is flanked by land owned by that massive, 775-unit apartment complex at 5500 Wisshickon Ave. – which once was the site of the historic Strawbridge estate and is now owned by the New York-based Lc3 Capital Partners.

The dumping is taking place on Alden Park's property, Valley Greene residents say, but they are bearing the consequences.

Susan Schaefer, another resident at Valley Greene who suspects that "word must have gotten out that there is an after-hours property and trucks have come in the middle of the night," said the frequency of the dumping has increased.

"You're talking about Alden Park being this elegant 1920s, desirable building, and this little strip of property that they own, they don't pay any attention to," Schaefer told the Local. "The dumping is literally in our backyard and partially on property that belongs to the Wissahickon Park."

Seeking solutions

Valley Greene, a cooperative with fewer resources than larger apartment complexes like Alden Park and its management company RAM Partners, has had no luck getting a response from its larger neighbor.

"We attempted to get in touch with the managers at Alden Park, which is always futile because they never get back to us," Margaret Taylor, a member of Valley Greene's board, told the Local.

Schaefer submitted a request to the city through the 311 hotline but has yet to receive a response. The co-op board has also reached out to City Council Member Curtis Jones' office, but is "still waiting to hear what they say.”

Tired of waiting, they reached out to the Local. 

So the Local contacted Mayor Cherelle Parker. Illegal dumping is nothing new in Germantown, or the rest of the city, either – a fact that led Parker to make the issue a highlight of her recent winning campaign. She has pledged to make Philadelphia "the Safest, Cleanest, Greenest big city in the nation."

Mayor responds

Within hours, Senior Director of Communications Sharon Gallagher had taken action and several city agencies were on the case. Citing “inter-department responsiveness,” she had five departments – the Mayor’s Office, Parks & Rec, The Office of Clean and Green, L&I and MDO – look into it. 

“Under Mayor Parker's overarching goal of Philadelphia becoming the Safest, Cleanest and Greenest City, with Access to Economic Opportunity for All, city departments are working in collaboration with various quasi-governmental agencies and nonprofits to employ proactive, intergovernmental, holistic strategies that address every quality-of-life issues, including illegal dumping prevention and remediation,” Gallagher said. 

Turns out that if the trash is on Alden Park property, CLIP has the authority to clean it up and then bill that company. Gallagher said the agency would visit the site on Tuesday. 

If the trash turns out to be on park property, the Department of Parks and Recreation would clean it up, she said. If it belongs to Alden Park, the Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP) will give the owners 10 days' notice.

“If the owner does not clean up in those 10 days, CLIP then has the legal authority to enter upon their property and clean up the dump, and then bill the owner for our cost of the cleanup plus administrative fees,” wrote Deputy Managing Director Tom Conway, who oversees the CLIP program. 

The Local reached out to Curtis Jones' office and Alden Park's management office for comment, but have not heard back.

Check next week’s local for the next installment of the tale of the Valley Greene trash pile. 

Tommy Tucker can be reached at Tommy@ChestnutHillLocal.com