The consensus among Northeast Philadelphia elected officials on a preferred plan for the Woodhaven Road/Route 63 project became even more of a consensus last week.
City Councilman Brian O’Neill joined state Sen. Mike Stack and state Rep. George Kenney in endorsing a modified version of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s so-called Woodhaven Extension option.
O’Neill (R-10th dist.) showed a map of the compromise proposal to area residents during the monthly meeting of the Somerton Civic Association on March 12 at Walker Lodge 306.
“This is using the (existing) right of way, but it’s using it in a limited way,” O’Neill said.
According to the councilman, the city’s Department of Streets produced the map, which is essentially a plan first proposed years ago. The concept was shelved, O’Neill believes, when PennDOT began looking at a broader, longer-term traffic solution in the Somerton/Lower Moreland Township area at the request of the federal government, which will be funding about 80 percent of any project.
Yet the Northeast lawmakers now contend that the discarded plan is still a viable one and that it will have less of a negative impact on area residences and businesses than PennDOT’s three current “build” alternatives.
The endorsed plan was detailed in an article appearing in March 13 editions of the Northeast Times.
“This is the streets department bringing back what is the most sensible approach,” O’Neill said. “I don’t want to see (PennDOT) wasting time going up Bustleton Avenue to County Line.”
Under one PennDOT proposal, Bustleton Avenue would be widened from two lanes to four between the Leo Mall north to County Line Road, with the existing Woodhaven Road expressway extending west from Evans Street to stop at Bustleton Avenue near the mall.
According to statistics released last week by PennDOT, 83 percent of Lower Moreland residents responding to a public survey favor the Bustleton Avenue alternative. Meanwhile, 65 percent of Somerton and Bustleton residents surveyed support extending Woodhaven Road farther, to Philmont Avenue, just beyond the city limits.
But many of the city homeowners, notably those living in Somerton’s Westwood section, side with the suburban dwellers. They claim that extending Woodhaven along the existing right of way to Philmont Avenue would bring the roadway too close to their homes.
During last week’s meeting, Westwood resident Jim Weldon criticized O’Neill for getting involved in the debate now after, Weldon claimed, the councilman had stayed out of the fray for years.
Weldon claimed that even a two-lane Woodhaven Road extension would directly impact 47 Westwood properties and that displacing a series of businesses along Bustleton Avenue would be a preferable alternative economically.
“The cheapest plan on the books now is Bustleton Avenue,” Weldon said.
In response, O’Neill — who has been in office for 22 years — defended his record on the issue, pointing out that it is a state matter and that the city has never played more than an advisory role.
“Our position has never changed. We want the (existing) right of way to be used,” O’Neill said. “The city people weren’t the ones who stopped it from happening. There’s been a lack of leadership on this issue. I think it’s time for some leadership.”
Led by SCA president Mary Jane Hazell, the civic group previously had rejected the Bustleton Avenue alternative because it would displace numerous businesses, as well as the Delaware Valley High School, which is at Poquessing Avenue. SCA voted in February to form an alliance with the private school on the issue.
Now, the civic association also is endorsing the modified Woodhaven Extension plan. Hazell believes that cutting the proposed extension from four lanes to two lanes west of Bustleton Avenue would relieve some of the burden that Westwood residents stood to incur.
“We don’t live in a cocoon,” said Hazell, echoing her own comments at the February SCA meeting. “What affects one area affects all of us in Somerton.”
Later, Hazell added that the neighborhood must remain unified to push for the preferred plan in the face of outside opposition.
“I am tired of Lower Moreland dictating what we have in Philadelphia,” she said.
Besides the Woodhaven Road issue, the future of the state-owned former Philadelphia State Hospital, commonly known as Byberry, was another hot topic at the civic meeting.
O’Neill endorsed the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., a quasi-city economic development agency, as “the only viable and the right agency to get involved (at Byberry) with the state.”
“They work things out. They don’t bully people. They don’t tell you how it has to be without a consensus,” the councilman said.
Paul Deegan, senior vice president of PIDC and a Somerton resident, assured the residents that they would be able to take an active role in any development planning for the 153-acre site. PIDC is negotiating an agreement of sale with the state for the site or a large portion of it. PIDC intends to propose a business office complex along Roosevelt Boulevard and either open space or residential development along Carter Road.
“I’m not interested in seeing anything bad put in Somerton,” Deegan said. “I’ve lived here for fifteen years now.
“What we’re really talking about is developing toward the Boulevard. We’re not looking to go all the way to Carter Road (with office buildings).”
In other SCA business:
• Zoning chairman Dominic Ragucci reported that the civic group won a zoning battle to block a homeowner on the 10000 block of Bustleton Ave. from getting a variance for a notary service at the residential property.
Ragucci cited traffic concerns for SCA’s opposition. Specifically, there is minimal off-street parking. The property is across the street from George Washington High School.
• Hazell announced that she is seeking volunteers to work the association’s annual Memorial Day Parade, which begins at George Washington High School and proceeds north on Bustleton Avenue to the Somerton United Methodist Church on Trevose Road.
• The civic association voted to contribute $315 for the purchase of a television by the Veterans for a Delaware Valley Nursing Home. The facility, at Roosevelt Boulevard and Southampton Road, is scheduled to open later this year.
• Capt. Mark Everitt, commander of the police department’s 7th district, reported that a rash of residential burglaries encountered in the district in recent months apparently had subsided.
Two months ago there were 41 such crimes in the district. Last month, there were 25. As of March 12, there hadn’t been any reported in the district.
Although most of the earlier crimes have yet to be solved, Everitt suspects that the thieves have been diverted for an unknown reason.
Everitt informed the residents that he would be transferred out of the district as part of a large round of promotions and reassignments within the department. Those changes occurred on Friday.