SAVE THE MEADOWS
What’s happening to the FDR Park Meadows?
Philadelphia Parks & Rec, with its partner the Fairmount Park Conservancy, is clear-cutting South Philadelphia’s only urban woodland park to build a $100 million sports complex with 16 artificial turf playing fields, while neglecting most of the city’s 192 neighborhood playing fields.
As of July 2026, there are still almost 100 acres of tree canopy and wildlife habitat left in the Meadows to save from toxic turf and development.
But about 75 acres have been clear-cut, including a huge area west and south of Bellaire Manor bulldozed in May and June of 2024 for the “Pattison Fields” phase of the $256 million master plan. Hundreds of trees were destroyed, including 48 irreplaceable heritage trees, leaving a vast expanse of dirt and scrub.
At its eastern edge, where the Picnic Grove (pictured above) once stood, the Fairmount Park Conservancy has been constructing the first athletic field (out of 16 planned).
The Pattison Fields plan showing the heritage trees cut down in 2024; the first field under construction.
The development and privatization of our public lands is out of control.
The Parker Administration’s plan for FDR Park ignores the needs and desires of the community. It poses serious risks to the environment and public health, and sets a dangerous precedent of public land being handed over for private use—something we, the public, do not accept.
South Philly has only 5% tree canopy cover — lowest in the city. The FDR Park Plan will destroy its largest woodland, a crucial green space that protects us from flooding, extreme heat, and air pollution
Artificial turf causes more injuries than grass, contains cancer-causing PFAS (hazardous for kids), increases urban temperatures, and harms the environment. Other cities such as Boston are banning it
The plan was created behind closed doors by the Fairmount Park Conservancy, a private entity, in 2018 — before PFAS was found in artificial turf, before the golf course was closed, and before the pandemic, when many members of our community discovered the healing powers of the Meadows.
The plan misrepresents community input. The majority who responded to the Conservancy’s surveys wanted more access to nature in FDR Park, not additional athletic fields.
The Conservancy’s plan is to make the park pay for itself by renting out the fields and other facilities, including using the newly renovated Welcome Center as an expensive catering hall. The Conservancy will be in charge of nearly all operations of a park that is only nominally public. It is a handover of our public property to an unaccountable private organization.
You can help save 100 Meadows
Contribute to the Legal Fund
Save The Meadows has committed to providing financial support for South Philly neighbors who are suing to stop the FDR Park Plan. Please consider contributing. Any amount helps! Donate here!
Sign the petition
Sign and share this petition to demand that Mayor Parker and City Council STOP the destruction of the FDR Meadows, South Philadelphia's only public green space with urban meadow and woodlands.
Choose your action
Join the movement, create an action, contact your councilperson, the Mayor’s office, and your state representatives. Your voice matters! Tell them why you believe the FDR Masterplan must be revised! Advice and contact info is here.
Save the Meadows is a grassroots campaign opposing the privatization and destruction of South Philly’s largest urban woodland in FDR Park. STM came together to respond to the City’s flawed and unpopular plan to redevelop 175 acres of natural land and install pay-to-play tournament fields made of toxic artificial turf. STM advocates for environmental justice, public health, community stewardship, and equal access to our public parks and natural lands. STM rejects the false choice between athletic fields and vital green space. Philadelphia’s youth deserve both!