A Northeast woodland was supposed to become a public park. Now it’s opening to deer hunters, leaving some neighbors feeling ‘duped.’

Lifelong Somerton resident Helene Houser is used to feeling forgotten by city officials in her neighborhood at Philadelphia’s city limit.

So nearly a decade ago, when the Parks and Recreation Department told neighbors that the vacant woodland behind Houser’s home would be transformed into a public park, the 66-year-old felt that leaders were paying attention to her Northeast community.

“That didn’t happen,” Houser said. “We felt like we were duped.”

Instead, the 17-acre parcel nestled between housing developments is slated to become the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s first bow hunting grounds within Philadelphia’s borders, hosting licensed hunters who will track and kill deer from perches high in the trees this fall.

Hunters such as Chalfont resident Tom Fleisher are ecstatic that the pastime is spreading in the Philadelphia region. “There are a large number of outdoorsman here,” Fleisher said.

Houser learned of the proposal after the Fort Washington-based real estate group Westrum donated the grounds to the Game Commission — a deal that neighbors say they had little input in before it was finalized late last year.

Houser isn’t the only Somerton neighbor concerned.

Chris Bordelon, president of the Somerton Civic Association, strongly opposes the Game Commission’s plan, which would allow up to five hunters at a time to participate in a series of two-week-long hunting periods between September and January.

Bordelon voiced his frustration at the Game Commission when a representative attended a Civic Association meeting in April. Bordelon said that regardless of his group’s worries, the proposal — which still requires approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources — was moving forward.

“People were saying, ‘Well isn’t this dangerous?’” Bordelon later told The Inquirer. “Neighbors use this property to walk their dogs, kids go out and mess around there to play. People feed the deer — that are apparently going to be shot.”

Game Commission officials said they’re taking neighbors’ concerns into account.

Hunting will be limited to bow and arrows, according to the commission, and must be conducted from tree stands — movable platforms that hunters affix to tree trunks to stalk deer from above, sometimes by 20 feet or more.

Game Commission officials say having hunters shooting downward, instead of horizontally, minimizes the risk of stray arrows going off course.

Safety is only one unease; Bordelon and Houser also worry about the stench and cleanliness that could come with hunters “field dressing” their kills — the common and often-enforced practice of removing a deer’s entrails with a knife before harvesting its meat.

A Game Commission spokesperson said hunters in Somerton won’t be required to field dress, though that’s not a guarantee it won’t happen.

Pennsylvania’s wildlife and hunting arm sees the narrow plot, which is less than the width of a football field, as an extension of the deer hunting that already takes place at the adjacent, state-owned Benjamin Rush State Park, located just across Route 1.

Because the Benjamin Rush grounds, as well as a sliver of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in South Philadelphia, overlap with Philadelphia’s borders, people are technically already hunting in the city. But the Somerton parcel will be the first city grounds owned by the state government for hunting purposes.

Game Commission officials said that along with boosting recreational opportunities for urban hunters, hunting also aids a public safety need. The Northeast neighborhood is overpopulated with deer, officials said, leading to unsafe scenarios for drivers who risk striking them on the roads.

“Spend any time on [Roosevelt] Boulevard, it’s hard to drive without seeing a couple of roadkill deer laying there,” said Dustin Stoner, information and education supervisor for the Game Commission’s southeastern office.

“They damage property, endanger lives, those are big issues that every Philadelphia motorist can see immediately,” Stoner continued. “[Hunting] is the best tool that the Game Commission has to manage that population.”

Like other neighbors, Somerton resident Heather Kustra was surprised to learn that the Game Commission possessed the land after being promised a park.

Nearly a decade ago, transcripts show, Westrum told neighbors at a community meeting that it intended to transfer the parcel to the Parks and Recreation Department to install walking paths and keep up maintenance — with one former parks official mentioning an “absolute commitment” to the idea.

Then for years, Kustra heard nothing.

“Philadelphia Parks and Recreation did not move forward with the plan because Westrum’s requirements posed too many maintenance, construction, and financial responsibilities for Parks & Rec to take on,” a spokesperson for the department said. “The state decided to take the land.”

Kustra said she was “extremely upset” that the transfer to the Game Commission took place with little community input. “We didn’t have a vote on it,” she told The Inquirer.

But Kustra can’t deny that Somerton has an abundance of deer, and has since warmed to the idea of hunting if hunters take safety into account.

“I don’t mind,” Kustra said. “I just know there’s a lot of old people around there. I think they’re scared something’s going to happen.”

Not everyone is upset over the prospect of open season in Somerton.

Fleisher, the Chalfont hunter, and Clint Dittmar, of Collegeville, said they were delighted to learn that more hunting opportunities were coming to urban and suburban hunters, who often travel to far-flung, upstate grounds to shoot deer.

The men co-run the Facebook group Philly Burbs Bowhunters, where nearly 3,000 followers obsess over the sport and share photos of trophy kills.

Despite his enthusiasm, Dittmar has questions about the logistics of the Somerton proposal.

The Montgomery County hunter typically hunts on 10- to 15-acre plots by himself, he said, and wonders whether five hunters sharing one similarly sized plot would pose challenges.

“I’ll go up in a tree stand and there’s people riding bikes and jogging, their dogs are running through the woods,” Dittmar said. “You have to be aware of that, and have to be prepared to share your surroundings with others.”

But Fleisher, a central Pennsylvania native and hunter since age 12, is confident that tree-stand shooting would keep neighbors out of harm’s way.

Members of Philly Burbs Bow Hunters are used to traveling as far as Bradford County to hunt, Fleisher said. More convenient destinations include Valley Forge Park and areas around Bucks County.

Of deer hunting within Philadelphia, “it’s kind of unheard of,” Fleisher said.