48 heritage trees in FDR Park can be cut down, zoning board says

A Parks and Recreation proposal to cut 48 heritage trees in South Philadelphia’s FDR Park to make room for multipurpose fields and other amenities can move forward, despite an onslaught of opposition and a lawsuit filed this week asking for a stop to all work at the park, the Zoning Board of Adjustment said Wednesday.

Still, some welcomed the decision, including Beth Devine, executive director of the Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative, which has more than 80 youth sport providers as members, several of whom back the FDR Park plan.

“It’s not like they’re just taking away everything and building fields,” she said. “It’s one piece of this much larger plan to create this place where people can use all the facets of the park.”

Certain species of trees at FDR Park fall under the heritage tree distinction for their ecological value and because they’ve reached a diameter of at least 25 inches. The zoning code protects such trees and special exceptions from the board are required to cut them.

Parks and Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy, the nonprofit leading the park’s $250 million makeover, needed the exception for an overhaul of part of the former golf course. The design called for raising some of the lowest-lying parts of the old golf course by several feet using dirt excavated from a 33-acre wetlands project already underway and installing five multipurpose fields, four basketball courts, and four baseball diamonds.

Tennis and pickleball courts, a picnic grove, a playground, and parking are also part of the design.

» READ MORE: 48 FDR Park heritage trees are on the chopping block. Experts, residents weigh in before zoning board.

To make room for these amenities, Parks and Recreation and the conservancy would need to clear-cut hundreds of trees, including these 48 heritage trees, and 16 heritage trees considered damaged or diseased.

A two-part hearing included testimony from residents citing the need for more fields, and critics demanding work on the park stop entirely, encapsulating the many needs and desires the redesign is expected to meet.

The FDR reimagining has been years in the making and is seen by Parks and Recreation as a much-needed intervention as sections of the 348-acre space face frequent flooding, which is only expected to increase in the face of climate change. Supporters also see the revamp as an opportunity to address a multipurpose field shortage.

Supporters of the design say the fields are needed to encourage young people to stay active and provide safe spaces when they’re not in school. But while some athletic groups and parents have expressed support for using artificial turf because it requires less downtime between uses, critics have increasingly questioned whether the city can ensure these fields are free of forever chemicals called PFAS, which the EPA has linked to various illnesses.

Devine, a self-described nature lover and birder, said the critics’ concerns are understandable. Yet she maintains that the overall FDR plan leaves plenty of greenspace and canopy, and creates new trails. Should the plan be scratched altogether, however, no other space offers a cluster of state-of-the-art multipurpose fields, she said.

“The good in this plan and the care they’ve taken to steward the rest of the space, to me, is worth the trade-off,” she said.

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

During the hearing, experts for the city said the planned layout caused the least disruption to the golf course. Still, some critics said that axing a multipurpose field and a couple of basketball courts could spare about 30% of the heritage trees slated for destruction.

Complicating matters is a lawsuit filed in Orphans’ Court Monday asking a judge for an injunction and declaratory judgment stating that the city can’t move forward with the renovation plans and stopping all work across the park.

Anisa George, a plaintiff and member of the organizing group Save the Meadows, described feeling a sense of despair because public comments at the board and community meetings have been “completely ineffectual” and left litigation as their last resort.

”Why should it be this hard?” she asked. “It’s not easy to file litigation. It took us months to find a lawyer, to build the brief, to set up the panel of experts that can speak, and it’s not accessible to your normal citizen.”

The suit argues the city violated the Public Trust Doctrine, which gives residents a right to pure water and “preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic value of the environment,” as well as other state regulations. Plaintiffs contend the park overhaul and the introduction of dozens of acres of artificial turf radically change the nature of the space, therefore requiring City Council and court approval.

In a statement, the conservancy said it would “continue to engage community members to ensure that their input is heard and considered.”

“This plan will make FDR Park an equitable, accessible, and world-class park both in terms of its recreation and environmental impact,” it read.

The timeline for cutting down the 48 heritage trees was not immediately clear, nor how the pending litigation could affect plans. The city did not immediately respond to requests for comment.