Fox Chase Cancer Center
is closer to expansion

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

City Councilman Brian O’Neill is finally satisfied that a Fox Chase Cancer Center expansion can handle the additional traffic.
The Fox Chase growth has been put on hold for more than two and a half years. It was back in March 2005 that the Fairmount Park Commission agreed to lease 19.4 acres of the 60-acre Burholme Park to the cancer center for additional buildings.
O’Neill (R-10th dist.) took a wait-and-see approach, concerned that the increase in employees and patients would result in a traffic logjam near the cancer center, at 333 Cottman Ave.
An engineering firm conducted a traffic study for the center. In O’Neill’s view, the study indicated that traffic would be a problem.
That’s when the councilman, who won an eighth four-year term in Tuesday’s election, contacted Charlie Trainor, a retired traffic engineer who worked for the city Department of Streets.
Trainor worked for the interests of O’Neill, the Fox Chase Homeowners Association and the Burholme Community Town Watch and Civic Association. He was paid by the cancer center.
In the end, Trainor submitted his report to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which approved his recommendations.
O’Neill and Trainor met last week with officials of the two civic associations, who gave their go-ahead.
On Nov. 1, the councilman introduced bills that would formally approve the lease of the land and change the zoning of the ground to an institutional development district.
City Council’s Rules Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation on Monday, Nov. 26, at 1 p.m.
O’Neill is pleased that the traffic issue has largely been settled.
"There are three big pieces to this," he said.
Trainor suggested, and PennDOT approved, the widening of driveways and installation of traffic lights at two intersections.
The lights will be erected at the cancer center’s main entrance of Cottman Avenue and at the entrance at Central and Shelmire avenues. There will be three lanes in each driveway, two for outgoing traffic and one for incoming vehicles.
The driveway at Central and Shelmire will also be available for motorists coming to and leaving Jeanes Hospital.
"It will be much safer for pedestrians and cars, and it will move traffic better," O’Neill said of the traffic lights.
Also, Trainor explained that traffic would flow much smoother with the erection of new lights and poles, along with the use of new technology. These improvements will go as far east as the ‘Five Points’ intersection of Cottman, Rising Sun and Oxford avenues.
In addition, the retired traffic engineer called for left-turn lanes at the cancer center’s main entrance and at the intersection of Central and Cottman avenues.
To make this happen, PennDOT has agreed to eliminate parking on the south side of Cottman Avenue, which is in Cheltenham Township. The cancer center will pay for driveways for residents affected by the change.
"That’s probably the most significant traffic improvement," O’Neill said of the deal to add the two turning lanes on Cottman Avenue.
As part of the overall plan, Fox Chase Cancer Center will pay $4.5 million into a fund that will pay for property that becomes available in the Burholme and Fox Chase neighborhoods.
Originally, the Fairmount Park Commission allowed the cancer center to replace the ground it was taking in Burholme Park with land in Cheltenham. O’Neill rejected that arrangement.
Opponents of the center expansion aren’t happy with the latest development.
Fred Maurer, who gives Trainor credit for coming up with rational traffic solutions, nonetheless argues that the will of Robert Ryerss prevents the city from using Burholme Park for development.
An Orphans’ Court judge will settle the matter.
"You can’t sell a park protected by a will," Maurer said. "You can’t put a price on it."
Maurer is not optimistic that he and the other opponents of the expansion can stop O’Neill’s legislation from getting passed and signed by Mayor John Street, who leaves office in early January.
"Anything that goes to Council recommended by a district Council person gets approved," he said.
The expansion will cost $1 billion and take 20 years to complete. It will feature research and outpatient treatment facilities. The center will hire more than 1,500 new employees and add beds in its hospital.
Fox Chase Cancer Center has long argued that it needed to expand to keep its clinical and research staff on one site. If the campus had not been able to expand, the center would have looked for a new home outside the city.
Meanwhile, the cancer center is proceeding with plans to build a 1,000-car multi-level garage and 120,000-square-foot research and care pavilion on its grounds.
That project will cost $70 million and create 400 jobs and is intended to reduce the waiting time for patients and ease parking concerns in the neighborhood. The building trades unions are eager to get to work.
Save Burholme Park, the group opposed to the larger expansion plan, tried to stop the construction, which was approved by the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The group, in an appeal to Common Pleas Court, contended that Fox Chase did not face a hardship on the ground. Also, it claimed the cancer center did not fully explain its plan. And, it argued that the buildings would be too high and too close to the Ryerss Library and Museum.
In response, O’Neill introduced a bill changing the zoning on the hospital ground from residential to an institutional development district. Council approved the measure, and Street signed it.
Maurer and other members of Save Burholme Park wanted to challenge the institutional development district in court. They had 30 days to make a filing, but their lawyer failed to take action.
Opponents would have fought to save open space and win guarantees of setbacks from property lines and the street.
"We should have challenged the IDD," Maurer said. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com