Standing ground

By Elizabeth Stieber
Times Staff Writer

Holding signs that read Save Burholme Park and Parks Are for People, a small group of park activists stood stoically on the steps of the Robert Ryerss mansion to preserve the grassy grounds they know and love.
On Dec. 28 — the 99th anniversary of the city solicitor’s opinion that authorized the Fairmount Park Commission to assume the care and management of Burholme Park — about a half-dozen members of the Burholme Park Community Coalition protested Fox Chase Cancer Center’s proposed expansion into the park.
The cancer center, however, contends that the expansion is imperative with its vision to combine patient care with continuing research in one larger campus.
"We are not against curing cancer. We know how urgent that is," Nancy Ostroff, the coalition chairwoman, told members of the news media. "But you can cure cancer anywhere. Cancer does not have to be cured in the middle of Burholme Park."
The cancer center’s $1 billion plan calls for acquiring a 25-acre section of the 60-acre park through a deal with the Fairmount Park Commission to expand the clinical and research components of the cancer center, at 333 Cottman Ave.
The hospital would double the number of beds and a new parking garage would be added, as well as about 4,000 jobs.
In exchange, the Fox Chase Cancer Center would fund restoration and maintenance of the entire park, including the playground equipment and ballfields.
In his will, Robert Ryerss left his home and land to the City of Philadelphia with the stipulation that the commission use the land as a public park and make the mansion a public library and its reading rooms filled with his family’s household items.
An ordinance on July 27, 1905 authorized the Fairmount Park Commission to "assume the management and maintenance of Burholme Park, and to see that it is properly maintained as a public park, in accordance with the wishes of the testator" (Ryerss), according to a Dec. 28, 1905 letter from the city solicitor to the president of the commissioners of Fairmount Park.
"Robert Ryerss loved this land. He lived here," Ostroff said. "He left it to the people."
The coalition members argue that there is plenty of open space in the city that the cancer center could use, including space along the Delaware River.
"We considered expanding by acquiring property in various parts of the region, but splintering our patient care operations and research is not consistent with what a ‘comprehensive cancer center’ is," Dr. Robert Young, president of Fox Chase Cancer Center, said during an October presentation of the plans to the park commission. "The interaction between scientists and physicians is key to the rapid translation of laboratory discoveries for patient care."
And there is no other comprehensive cancer center in the country with satellite campuses, according to FCCC spokeswoman Karen Carter Mallet.
"Researchers interact with our physicians on a day-to-day basis," she said during a phone interview last week. "That interaction is critical to our mission."
The Fairmount Park Commission could make a decision at its next meeting this month.
There have been several public meetings about the expansion and open house tours at the cancer center.
Once the park commission makes its decision, the cancer center wants to form an advisory committee made up of community members who can offer their suggestions to the plans, Mallet said.
Northeast Philadelphia and Montgomery County residents who oppose the expansion formed the Burholme Park Community Coalition. They are circulating a petition that asks Gov. Ed Rendell, Mayor John Street and City Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.) to leave their communities intact by keeping the park as is.
"Why should any individual write a will and leave land anywhere in the city of Philadelphia if the officials are then, fifty or a hundred years later, going to see fit to break the will?" Ostroff asked.
O’Neill, meanwhile, agrees with the large group of residents with whom he has spoken that there is room for compromise.
The councilman said during a phone interview last week that, while he does not support the current cancer center plans, he also doesn’t believe Burholme Park will remain untouched.
"It would have to be win-win for it to happen," he said of the expansion.
O’Neill said the community has offered good suggestions, and he understands that Fox Chase Cancer Center has been "a very good neighbor" over the years.
"I’m still holding out hope that there can be a reasonable compromise," he said.
The members are currently interviewing lawyers to fight the expansion, Ostroff said.
Area resident Fred Maurer explained that, like Fox Chase Cancer Center, the park is used for the public’s health as a place for recreational activity.
"We have created a public health need by creating parks, so parks are designed for the health and welfare of people," he said.
Tim Kearney, who in November lost a bid to unseat state House Speaker John Perzel in the 172nd Legislative District, has also taken up the cause to save the park from expansion.
While campaigning, Kearney said the topic came up often in the Fox Chase community.
"Most of the people that I talked to, who said anything about it, said they didn’t want to see the center take twenty-five acres," Kearney said. "They want to see the park stay the way it was." ••
Reporter Elizabeth Stieber can be reached at 215-354-3036 or estieber@phillynews.com