Developers Won't Bulldoze Into Fairmount Park

Legislation that might have opened the door to development inside Fairmount Park gets quashed.

Developers won't be able to bulldoze their way into Fairmount Park anytime soon. City Council put a stop to a bill that some people feared would turn the city's greenest gem into a Joni Mitchell Paved Paradise.

Councilwoman Joan L. Krajewski had introduced a bill to change zoning and usage in the park. A spokeswoman for Krajewski told Philly.com the bill was only intended to deal with some ongoing operational problems at Glen Foerd on the Delaware. The historic mansion is in Krajewski's district.

But rather than being specific, the bill was written so broadly critics said it would open parkland up to developers for housing, parking, building construction, signage and more.

Even it was approved with specific language, critics considered the pandora's box scenario a huge concern: "Once this thing is done, I don't know how the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation will stop the next one," said Robert N.C. Nix 3d, president of the Fairmount Park Commission.

On Tuesday, just hours after the story went live on Philly.com, City Council pulled the bill, agreeing it was too broad. Smart move since the city is in the middle of a big transition that makes it hard to tell if controversies like this are being argued from an advocacy point of view or if the underlying motivation is purely political. After all Krajewski's bill was put on the table while the FPC is in lame duck mode and before the behavior of the new group has been tested.

Last November, voters approved a charter change that gets rid of the Fairmount Park Commission, which has been around for more than 140 years and operated independently. It gets decommissioned at the end of June and replaced by a city-controlled commission that will function as an advisory group, setting guidelines and policies for parks and recreation.

"One great thing that the Fairmount Park Commission provided was sunshine," said Penny Bach, Executive Director of the non-profit, Fairmount Park Art Association. Land use issues were gone over and discussed out in the open "and hopefully that will continue."

Before the bill was pulled, the head of the new commission, Michael DiBerardinis, did voice concern over the "sweeping and broad nature of the bill" and said the Nutter administration was prepared to address that. "In the future, the first thing I want to do with the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission is work on a set of approaches and policy recommendations on the use and disposition of parkland."

The old guard is both wary and defensive. "Whatever you want to say about the [Fairmount Park] Commission, at least it was a sounding board. Now there is no hurdle" for potential developers, Nix told the Inquirer. He sees too much opportunity for Council members to influence what happens with the new commission. "You'll need a really, really strong mayor to fight it," Nix said.

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