Visitors to FDR Park in South Philadelphia may have been startled by the growl of bulldozers during the past year. Since August 2022, the city has been systematically uprooting trees and moving mountains of soil in the western portion of the park.
This area, affectionately dubbed “The Meadows” by park users, contains popular picnic grounds and miles of hiking trails through wildflower meadows, woods and wetlands. It has been a place for school and pre-school nature programs, music festivals and family gatherings as well as a setting for quiet contemplation. Tragically, however, much of this natural area has now been destroyed, and another 50 acres of beautiful green space may also disappear if the city government goes through with its proposals.
The Department of Parks and Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy are planning to construct a gigantic sports complex within The Meadows. Eventually, 16 artificial-turf playing fields, basketball and tennis courts, buildings, parking lots and roads would be built in this section of the park. The fields would be lit for night games with high stadium-style light towers. Because of problems of water drainage, an elaborate system of cisterns would be constructed beneath the playing fields, ballooning the initial costs of the project to over $100 million.
This second phase of the city’s plan to reconstruct The Meadows could begin as early as March 2024. While the first phase included wetlands in the southwestern portion of the park, this second phase would concentrate almost entirely on clearing additional land to the north for the proposed sports complex. The new area that has been targeted for clearance and reworking into athletic fields and buildings includes the large picnic grounds south of the historic Bellaire mansion (ca. 1715).
Several public meetings to discuss this new phase have been called for early 2024, culminating in a Zoning Board hearing in February. The Zoning Board will decide whether the city can gain permission to cut down close to 50 mature heritage trees in this section of the park. At the same time, however, a broad coalition of environmental groups and concerned neighbors and park users has expressed alarm over additional problems that the project could create.
Many have called attention to the anticipated rise in noise, traffic and light pollution in the adjoining Packer Park neighborhood, due to the crowds of people who will need to travel through the area in order to make use of the complex. Parking is already a concern due to Phillies and Eagles games; the colossal new sports facilities in FDR Park will make these problems far worse. Many have asked why Parks & Rec cannot improve its poorly maintained playing fields throughout the city instead of putting 16 fields into a single park at the far end of South Philadelphia.
Another prominent issue involves the projected use of plastic artificial turf for the playing fields. Artificial turf presents great dangers for our children. It is not only a harder surface than natural grass but it heats up to far higher temperatures in the summer. The potential for increased injuries and burns is why the NFL Players Association has called for the removal of artificial turf from all stadiums that still use it, and why the international soccer organization, FIFA, refuses to play on synthetic surfaces.
Even worse, artificial turfs — including the most modern varieties — are coated with non-degrading “forever chemicals” (PFAS), which can lead to liver and thyroid debility or cancer. These toxic substances would drain into the watershed, and eventually into the Delaware River. This is a blatant violation of the city’s own policies against chemical pollution of local waterways — a matter that the city is acutely aware of, since it is currently suing PFAS manufacturers. Artificial turf is also highly expensive; it must be replaced every eight to 10 years, at the cost of millions of dollars.
South Philly Review readers who are concerned about these (and other) issues raised by the city’s plans for FDR Park can obtain more information by contacting Save the Meadows. See the website: www.savethemeadows.com. ••
