Editorial

Opinions vary on the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Woodhaven Road Project, but one thing seems unequivocally true as PennDOT nears the Aug. 11 conclusion of public comment on the project’s cumbersome Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
The truth is that a lot of local folks won’t be standing by idly as state and federal officials decide the future of transportation in the tri-county area and, some suggest, the ultimate fate of entire communities.
These residents, representing all of the affected neighborhoods and the varying opinions, have taken to the streets, the meeting halls, the political offices and even the cyber-world to propagate their messages.
The jury is still out on the winners and losers, as PennDOT is still months, perhaps years, away from selecting a specific plan with which to move forward. Yet no matter the verdict, the project is sure to leave a legacy of fervent civic activism.
According to experts in community organizing, it’s no coincidence that it took a highway project to get many local folks involved.
“There is a long history all over the country of neighborhood groups rising up over roadways that threaten the viability of the residential community,” said Ed Schwartz, a former Philadelphia city councilman and director of the Center City-based Institute for the Study of Civic Values.

In Philadelphia, the big fights seem to spring to life only once every few decades.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it happened with two major regional projects, Interstate 95 in the downtown neighborhood of Queen Village and I-476 (the Blue Route) in Delaware County.
In both instances, the highways were built.
“In general, if there is a reason for expediting traffic and if it is an improvement of the traffic route, when it’s between highways and neighborhoods, highways usually win,” Schwartz said.
That prospect has done little to deter the formation of several civic organizations with the stated purpose of defeating all of PennDOT’s current Woodhaven project proposals.
Though relatively new, groups like the Citizens Alliance for Southampton, the Citizens Alliance for Lower Moreland and Bryn Athyn and the Citizens Alliance for Westwood have garnered instant support.
As many as 1,200 people have attended joint meetings of these groups, which are key members of the umbrella group known as the Tri-County Coalition. Astonishingly, in all three communities, no true civic group existed prior to the latter part of last year.
“It’s not something we even wanted to do at first,” said Steve McLaverty, a vice president of the Southampton group.
“We had a small neighborhood meeting at first at the Evangelical Fellowship Chapel. A hundred-fifty people showed up. Obviously they were concerned. We realized we were strong in numbers and decided to organize.”
That was last November, shortly after PennDOT officials reported at a meeting of Upper Southampton Township supervisors that the project options under consideration included the widening of parts of County Line Road in the township.
Residents in that corridor acted out of fear of losing their homes or part of their properties, or having a major state highway running through their community.

In typical grass-roots fashion, the new group pooled their skills and resources and mounted a massive public information campaign.
“We asked who had time and who had special abilities — different things they could bring to the group,” said Jim Giordano, the group’s treasurer.
The organization set up a system of block captains to bridge the gap between the officers and the public at-large. Naturally, all are volunteers.
“When we need to get information out, they say, ‘How much and when?’” McLaverty said. “That’s a big part of the whole process, getting information out.”
They’ve done their share of information gathering, too, digging deep into PennDOT’s 300-plus-page DEIS, communicating with partner civic groups and studying the tactics of activists in similar situations elsewhere.
“We’ve done a lot of research and how (the process) works by necessity,” Giordano said. “There was one group in New York City along the (Hudson) River that was fighting the same thing, a highway going through their neighborhood.”
The leaders take the information and produce periodic newsletters for widespread distribution. They also maintain an Internet Web site — www.southamptoncares.com — with a graphic depicting a large truck tearing through a flowery field on the home page.
The site has attracted more than 6,600 hits since its launch on March 9. Many visitors try to contact the group via e-mail.
“We get a lot of people who put in requests for information after they look at the Web site,” McLaverty said.
They also get some negative responses, including a few obscene ones. They try to respond to all reasonable comments.

Technology has been a useful tool in other capacities, too.
Lower Moreland leader Jim O’Neill and Westwood leader Jim Weldon have each used a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to give audiences a strong visual message to accompany their verbal criticism of PennDOT’s build proposals.
The presentation makes use of the state’s own information and graphics, but highlights information supportive of their groups’ platform. Members of the Tri-County Coalition oppose all four of PennDOT’s build proposals and have offered a counterproposal, called the Route 1 Alternative.
Rather than extending the Woodhaven Expressway, their plan would shorten it so that Route 1 would be the western terminus. The coalition members hope to re-route traffic around their neighborhoods.
On March 27, an estimated 1,200 people showed up for a meeting at Lower Moreland High School where the PowerPoint presentation was first shown. Another 100 or so residents of Somerton’s Westwood section saw it at another meeting on April 10 at St. Andrew’s in the Field Church.
O’Neill and Weldon did not respond to interview requests for this article.
When they are not tending to major meetings, civic leaders in Southampton, Lower Moreland and Westwood maintain public attention to their issue by use of political campaign-style buttons and lawn signs.
Drivers in the Huntingdon Valley area should be very familiar with the signs posted in yards along local arteries like Byberry Road, Philmont Avenue, Pine Road and Huntingdon Pike. They say “Stop Woodhaven Road.” The groups charge a fee for the signs and buttons, with the proceeds supporting the overall campaign.
In Southampton, the civic leaders there concede that a relative few do most of the day-to-day work on the campaign. Yet, said Dan Walsh, president of the CAS, “These people can be rallied very quickly.”

Not all of the organizations figuring prominently in the Woodhaven project debate are new to the arena of civic activity.
Two Northeast-based groups, the Somerton Civic Association and the Timberwalk Association, existed prior to the recent flurry of debate on the issue.
The Timberwalk group was founded in 2001 to tackle issues affecting a 158-home development on Northeast Avenue in Somerton. It aligns itself with the Tri-County Coalition.
Somerton Civic, meanwhile, dates back 58 years and has a long history of involvement in community issues, including zoning matters, as well as residential and commercial development. The SCA even runs the only Memorial Day parade in Northeast Philadelphia.
The Woodhaven project has been one of the two biggest and most enduring issues facing the organization. It supports construction of a Woodhaven Expressway extension using existing state-owned land.
Like the Tri-County Coalition, Somerton Civic opposes all of PennDOT’s proposals on the grounds that all will likely result in the demolition of additional homes or businesses. The state acquired more than 100 properties in the 1970s to create the existing right-of-way.
The Somerton group has no Web site and distributes no issue-specific fliers. However, the association does hold monthly general and executive board meetings (except in the summer) and distributes monthly newsletters.
On occasion, the Somerton residents have taken to the streets, too, to make a point on the Woodhaven Road issue.
During the week of June 16, members of the civic group physically blocked roads in the project area, including Byberry Road at Bustleton Avenue, on three different mornings.
Byberry Road, many Somerton residents say, takes the brunt of traffic exiting and entering the existing Woodhaven Expressway at Evans Street. But Byberry is not a state road. It’s a two-lane city street.
Though the protests appeared to anger many motorists, Somerton Civic president Mary Jane Hazell believes the action was effective.
“Everybody from the suburbs kept saying to us, ‘It’s not our traffic (on Byberry Road),’” Hazell said. “Nobody wanted to admit whose traffic it was. That Monday was chaos. We proved our point.”

Perhaps Somerton’s greatest coup in the recent Woodhaven debate, however, has been its ability to win endorsement from elected officials.
Though suburban pols including state Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf and state Reps. Roy W. Cornell, Bernard T. O’Neill and Scott A. Petri have backed the Tri-County Coalition, Hazell’s group has garnered support from Philadelphia state Sen. Michael J. Stack III, state Rep. George T. Kenney and City Councilman Brian J. O’Neill.
Also, U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel has publicly endorsed extending the Woodhaven Expressway to Philmont Avenue, too, in direct opposition to the Tri-County Coalition. Hoeffel represents parts of Northeast Philadelphia and Montgomery County, although he lives in Abington.
Hoeffel, who plans to run for the U.S. Senate next year, announced his stance in mid-June after the leading transportation official for the Montgomery County Planning Commission, Leo Bagley, recommended the so-called full extension.
The congressman’s endorsement is important because the project will be more than 80 percent funded by federal tax dollars.
U.S. Rep. James Greenwood, whose district includes Bucks County and small sections of Montgomery County and the Far Northeast, has acknowledged the need for traffic improvements in the area but has not endorsed a specific plan, although in an interview with the Northeast Times last August he endorsed extending Woodhaven at least to Philmont Avenue.
Hazell considers herself ahead of the game thanks to the political support, but she insists on a public mandate, as well. That’s why she has sought to form her own coalition of Northeast-based civic organizations. According to the Somerton leader, groups from Normandy, Bustleton and Parkwood have backed her version of the Woodhaven Extension plan, as has the United Northeast Neighbors umbrella group.
“Elected officials are important, but it’s more important that the people are satisfied,” Hazell said. “You have to take the whole picture. Nobody lives in a cocoon here.
“What affects us, also affects them.”
The Timberwalk Association has found itself on the short end of city-based political maneuvering, having seen its U.S. House member and state senator publicly back the other side, despite efforts to sway them otherwise. Also, said Ray Alvarez, president of the group, state Rep. Dennis O’Brien told the organization he backs the same plan as Hoeffel and Stack.
“We’ve been trying to reach out to our legislators as an organization that falls in a district of all of the elected officials who (endorse a plan) that would have an impact on us,” Alvarez said.
Schwartz, the former city councilman, figures that Somerton Civic has an advantage in the political process because of its longevity as an organization and a strong voting bloc.
“Their leadership is wrapped up in the political system, which means they deliver votes. That’s what a politician most fears,” he said. “And they can be counted on (to vote).”
It still may not be enough to get their project done, however. If nothing else, Schwartz contends, opponents of the new road have the status quo on their side.
Although leaders of the Tri-County Coalition have repeatedly denied that they favor a “no-build” option, they could potentially tie up the process long enough so that the project is killed after all. Lawsuits could come into play.
“Usually, there are avenues of appeal,” Schwartz said. “And if neighborhoods are willing to do something (to appeal), it can be tied up for a long time.” ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com