Vantage Point

VantagePoint By Wendy Lathrop, LS, CFM

Wendy Lathrop is licensed as a Professional Land Surveyor in NJ, PA, DE, and MD, and has been involved since 1974 in surveying projects ranging from construction to boundary to environmental land use disputes. She is a Professional Planner in NJ, and a Certified Floodplain Manager through ASFPM.

Diversions in the Park

The 168,000 square foot School of the Future in West Philadelphia is too massive to fit into a single photo; about a quarter of the school shows here. It faces a street of intricately detailed if somewhat decaying brick homes built in the late 1800s.

here is not a lot of total of 4180 acres formed Fairmount In the end, the $63 million, 168,000 unused land in our Park, and together with 63 neighbor- square foot School of the Future opened urban and increasingly hood parks, the Fairmount Park system in September 2006, housing about suburban areas. It disap- encompasses approximately 9200 acres. 700 students in grades 9 through 12 pears under shopping But that number is decreasing. on approximately eight leased acres in centers and houses It is not news that many inner Fairmount Park in West Philadelphia. The and roadways at a rate unimaginable a city schools are underfunded and building, constructed in accordance with century ago. So it may not be unusual overcrowded, conditions less than the LEED Green Building Rating System, to start eyeing land that was set aside for optimal for preparing students for incorporates photoelectric glass to generate parks and open space at the end of the productive modern-day adulthood. part of the building’s power supply while nineteenth century as various societal Recognizing that the city had not built providing real-time data for students to see pressures begin to mount. a new high school in nearly thirty how much energy is being generated and Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park system years, Philadelphia School District’s the resulting positive impact on the envi- is rooted in a public cause: a growing CEO approached Microsoft in 2003 ronment. While in stark contrast to nearby awareness that industrial waste polluted to consider building its proposed new Centennial Hall, the main centerpiece for the Schuylkill River, a primary drinking School of the Future, “a prototype that our nation’s 100th birthday celebration, water source for the city’s citizens. After is aesthetically pleasing, technologically the school is impressive in its sustainability, years of scattered purchases of riverfront advanced, environmentally friendly and if not entirely aesthetically appealing on the property, 1854 legislation authorized can be replicated throughout the world outside. It is, however, a highly innovative the city to purchase land within its on a traditional budget,” as a real school magnet school that is fully equipped with jurisdictional boundaries to protect water in Philadelphia rather than as a display wireless and mobile technology, not to quality. A year later, with the donation of at Microsoft’s home office in Redmond, mention outdoor amphitheater, indoor the Lemon Hill estate and its dedication Washington. Microsoft said “yes”. Amid performing arts theater, and a 9,000 square to the public as a park, Fairmount Park the excitement, one detail nearly scuttled foot gymnasium. was officially underway. Eventually a the project: where could it be built? continued on page 71

Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • November • Copyright 2008 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com The front entrance to Fox Chase Medical Center faces wooded parkland. Directly behind Fox Chase is Jeanes Hospital, to its left is a city street, and to its right are playing fields that are part of Burholme Park.

Lathrop, continued from page 72 at the seams. To remain in its current any such transaction might have on city But isn’t this an unacceptable location, it proposes to lease 19.4 acres of revenues, job growth, or employment diversion from the original intent of Burholme Park in a 20-year expansion opportunities against quality of life issues the park system? The Fairmount Park plan and to offset the diverted park is never easy. In the Fox Chase situa- Commission, as part of Philadelphia’s area with other land. After identifying tion, unlike the School of the Future, City government, had a balancing act to a 15-acre replacement tract nearby but there is also a will to consider, and perform. In considering any impact to disconnected from Burholme Park, the Pennsylvania’s Orphans Court is now the city’s water supply or water quality, Fairmount Park Commission approved hearing the arguments. broader quality of life issues finally tipped the plan in March 2005, but the first At times, neither wills nor land use the scales in favor of diversion from park shovelful of dirt has yet to be moved. regulations stand to preserve open space use to school use, favoring brain cells and In March 2008, Philadelphia’s City needs. Twenty miles down the highway, leasing revenues over open space. Council passed a bill also approving the Valley Forge National Park finds itself with Now the Park Commission faces lease to Fox Chase, noting that without several “in holdings” within its authorized a similarly difficult choice in another the possibility of expansion in place, Fox boundaries, held by private owners section of the city, one that has at times Chase would probably locate its new hoping to capitalize on being surrounded been characterized as saving a park facilities outside the city or even relocate by 3500 acres of Revolutionary War versus fighting cancer. its existing facilities beyond its limits, campgrounds and historic structures. In The Ryerss family built its mansion with “significant deleterious effects on 2001 the National Park Service was unable “Burholme” in Northeast Philadelphia the City because of the resulting loss to purchase one such 62-acre tract, which in 1859, and the terms of an 1895 will of jobs for City citizens, the economic developer Toll Brothers bought for its bequeathed the house and its surrounding impact on the surrounding neighbor- usual suburban residential sprawl. A grass 85 acres to the City to be used as a park, hood, and the loss of a leader in the roots campaign led to the federal govern- museum, and library “free to the public”. health care industry in the City.” On the ment’s 2003 purchase of that tract for three Currently Burholme Park is heavily used, other hand, keeping Fox Chase in its times what Toll Brothers had paid. situated in a dense urban residential area present location would “create thousands But in 2007 another group acquired where few green spaces exist. of both temporary and permanent jobs, 78 acres with plans to build a conference Immediately adjoining Burholme expand the City’s tax base, and keep Fox center, hotel, retail, campground, and Park is the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Chase at the forefront of cancer treat- museum as “the American Revolution internationally known for its research ment and research” while not impairing Center,” a hotly contested development. while also providing treatment for cancer the mansion, its surrounding grounds, At present the locals have enlisted the patients. Shocking statistics tell us that or the ball fields. What would disappear National Parks Conservation Association incidence of variations of this disease is would be the golfing facilities. in a suit against the township over the on a dramatic rise, and between labs and There are of course more details to the zoning change enabling such a proposal. hospital services, Fox Chase is bursting story. But weighing the economic impact The defense, of course, is economic.