South Philly residents sue city, demand injunction on FDR Park makeover

Eleven South Philadelphia residents opposed to the city’s reimagining of FDR Park have filed a lawsuit, asking a judge to issue an injunction on work across the park, as well a declaratory judgment stating that the city can’t move forward with the renovation plans.

The group is being represented by Samuel Stretton, who has successfully fought off new development in Kardon Park in Downington and Fox Chase Cancer Center’s proposed expansion into Burholme Park in Northeast Philadelphia.

Stretton argues that FDR Park’s $250 million makeover already underway radically changes the nature of the space by adding dozens of acres of artificial turf, violating the Public Trust Doctrine, which gives residents in the state a right to pure water and “preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic value of the environment,” as well as other state regulations.

The suit, filed Monday in Orphans’ Court, argues the proposed changes for the park need City Council and court approval.

“They’re changing wildlife, covering up wetlands, emerging wetlands, and they want to make something very different,” said Stretton.

Parks and Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy, a nonprofit hired by the city to lead fundraising and see the plan through, are named in the suit, as is Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and City Council. The city did not respond to requests for comment and the conservancy said it had not had time to review the lawsuit.

Though the suit is calling for an injunction to work across the park, including what’s already underway, much of the focus is on plans for the former golf course, which closed in 2019 because of frequent flooding and lack of profit and where work has yet to begin.

Parks and Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy pitched the makeover as a necessary intervention as the 348-acre park, which was built over wetlands, is only expected to face more flooding in the face of climate change.

But the golf course grew wild during the pandemic and became a favorite for hikers and bird watchers eager for green space during lockdowns, and the area became known as “the meadows.” Some residents, even those who had been supportive of the investment in the park, started to have doubts about using parts of the former golf course for athletic fields that would use artificial turf and require the cutting down of hundreds of trees, including 48 so-called heritage trees, which the city deems to be of ecological importance because of their species, age, and size.

Opponents of the plan have accused Parks and Rec and the Fairmount Park Conservancy of ignoring the new ways people used the site during the pandemic.

“We’re taking a legal route because it’s our last resort,” said plaintiff and member of the organizing group Save the Meadows Anisa George, who described feeling ignored in public hearings regarding the plan in the past year.

» READ MORE: FDR Park community meeting draws hundreds, starts off in tense face-off

Current plans for the golf course include five multipurpose fields, four basketball courts, and four baseball diamonds, as well as tennis and pickleball courts. A picnic grove, playground, and parking lot are also slated for that part of the park.

The park overall is slated to have 12 multi-purpose fields, six fields for baseball and softball, 10 tennis courts, and eight basketball courts.

The possible presence of forever chemicals called PFAS, which the EPA has linked to illnesses from asthma to cancer, has drawn concerns among critics who worry there’s no PFAS-free artificial turf.

The Fairmount Park Conservancy has said the fields would use “natural materials for the infill, such as walnut shells, sand, wood particle, coconut fibers, and cork.” Yet residents remain skeptical.

» READ MORE: A stew of toxic chemicals lurks in artificial turf. Some experts worry they could be linked to cancer in young athletes.

To keep the future athletic fields from flooding, the city plans to elevate the land up to 10 feet in some areas. Parks and the conservancy have said the fields will have stormwater management storage underneath that will filter stormwater and slowly release it to a nearby creek.

The suit claims artificial turf and proposed storage “radically changes the nature and purpose of the parkland” by replacing natural greenscape and canopy with artificial materials, introducing “potentially dangerous contaminated water” to the surrounding watersheds.

Supporters of making changes to FDR Park and adding fields include Council President Kenyatta Johnson, several youth sports organizations, and parents of young athletes who have said the city lacks fields for football and soccer. They say the artificial turf allows for less downtime between play and placing several of them together would boost tournaments.

Aparna Palantino, deputy commissioner for capital infrastructure and natural lands management at Parks, has previously said about 21,000 kids ages 5 to 17 live in South Philly, with nowhere near enough fields for them to use.

In a Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing last week, a handful of people said they saw the plan as a way to improve public health and quality of life.

Still, dozens more people offered public comment and written testimony to the contrary.

The board was slated to come down with a decision Wednesday on whether Parks and the conservancy could move ahead with plans to cut down 48 heritage trees.

It was not immediately clear whether the lawsuit affects the board’s plans to issue its decision.