Grays Ferry already has enough environmental burdens. The new CHOP parking lot will only create more.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia lot would be located in a working-class, largely residential neighborhood, where residents will see more cars, more emissions, and more health risks for kids.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is planning to build a 1,005-car parking garage in the heart of Grays Ferry, a neighborhood already burdened by environmental stress.
While the hospital frames the project as a practical solution for employee parking, this massive development threatens to deepen existing pollution, increase traffic, and chip away at the livability of a community that has long carried the costs of urban expansion without sharing in its benefits.
This is not just a zoning or traffic issue. It’s an environmental justice issue, and it directly contradicts both the spirit and letter of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
In 1971, Pennsylvanians ratified Article I, Section 27, known as the Environmental Rights Amendment. It declares: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”
It obligates the commonwealth (not just the state government, but all levels of public power) to act as trustees of these natural resources, holding them in trust for both current and future generations.
The construction of a seven-story, 350,000-square-foot garage alongside an existing highway network, already degrading the area’s air quality, fails this constitutional mandate.
CHOP is outsourcing its environmental burden to a working-class, largely residential neighborhood, where residents will see more cars, more emissions, and more health risks for children who already face some of the highest asthma rates in the city.
Remember: This is the community that endured the effects of more than 150 years of pollution from one of the nation’s oldest oil refineries until its closure in 2019.
» READ MORE: Gov. Shapiro fast-tracks oil refinery redevelopment and impacted residents call for City Council hearings | Opinion
And yet, thanks to the “flexible zoning” of the proposed site of the lot at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave., local residents have little leverage. The land may be vacant, but its transformation into a car-centric facility undermines Philadelphia’s goals for cleaner air, safer streets, and reduced emissions.
That’s where Pennsylvania House Bill 109, passed out of committee in April, comes in. This landmark legislation reaffirms the Environmental Rights Amendment by requiring large infrastructure projects to undergo environmental equity reviews before approval.
It was designed to ensure development doesn’t disproportionately harm marginalized communities. The law aims to make decision-makers confront cumulative impacts. Not just what’s added by one garage, but what’s already there: a neighborhood boxed in by highways, lacking reliable public transit, and surrounded by air pollution.
Although HB 109 is not officially the law of the land — yet — CHOP’s garage must be reviewed under this lens. The people of Grays Ferry are not just passive recipients of development; they are stakeholders in a public trust. Their right to breathe clean air and walk safe streets is no less important than any hospital expansion.
Some neighborhood groups have raised concerns, and CHOP has made modest offers such as grants, workforce development, and park maintenance. But these are side deals, a way to escape culpability.
The core issue remains: Should a world-class children’s hospital be allowed to increase pollution and traffic in a vulnerable neighborhood while claiming to serve child health?
It’s not too late for CHOP to lead by example. Instead of doubling down on car infrastructure, it could invest in true sustainable mobility: workforce housing with shuttles, bike access, transit partnerships with SEPTA, and remote work options. They could put health, not convenience, at the center of their plan.
Philadelphia residents, environmental advocates, and public health professionals must speak up now.
Demand that the city of Philadelphia fully apply the standards set by House Bill 109.
Insist on a transparent environmental justice review of CHOP’s garage project.
Contact your City Council representative and support community organizations in Grays Ferry.
Grays Ferry and its children deserve more than a parking garage. They deserve clean air, safe streets, and a future not paved over by short-term thinking.
Our right to clean air and a livable neighborhood isn’t optional, it’s constitutional.
Ashlei Tracy is a nonprofit executive and public policy strategist. She currently serves as deputy director of the Pennsylvania Bipartisan Climate Initiative and a board member of Young Involved Philadelphia, where she contributes to advancing civic engagement among young leaders.