Fox Chase Cancer Center
expects great news this week

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

City Council seems poised this week to pass legislation that gives Fox Chase Cancer the zoning changes and lease agreements needed for it to expand into Burholme Park.
A joint Council Committee on Rules and Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs last week approved the measures after a hearing on the controversial plan.
In March 2005, the Fairmount Park Commission had agreed to lease 19.4 acres of the 60-acre Burholme Park to the cancer center for additional buildings.
As part of the deal, Fox Chase was going to purchase and preserve land in Cheltenham Township to make up for the ground it planned to take in the park.
However, Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.) rejected the land swap because it involved ground in Montgomery County. In addition, he was worried about the impact on traffic because of the additional employees and outpatients.
By Nov. 1, after the release of a study by retired Department of Streets traffic engineer Charlie Trainor, O’Neill was satisfied that traffic flow would be improved.
Improvements include the widening of driveways and installation of traffic lights at the cancer center’s main entrance on Cottman Avenue and at the intersection of Central and Shelmire avenues. There will also be left-turn lanes at the main entrance and at the intersection of Central and Cottman avenues. Parking will be eliminated for Cheltenham residents who live on the south side of Cottman Avenue. PennDOT has OK’d the plan.
In addition, the cancer center will pay $4.5 million into a fund for purchase and preservation of green space that becomes available in the Burholme and Fox Chase neighborhoods.
"At least we’re not doing Cheltenham Township land anymore," O’Neill said.
The center will also plant two trees for every tree that is removed during the project, and has promised not to seek parkland in the future.
If Council passes the legislation this week, Mayor John Street is expected to sign it. The $1 billion project will take 20 years to complete. It will feature 15 research and outpatient treatment facilities and office buildings; a doubling of hospital beds; and 1,500 new jobs.
Once the mayor signs the bills, Save Burholme Park and other opponents of the expansion will look to Orphans Court to stop the project. They argue that the will of Robert Waln Ryerss should be preserved. He donated Burholme Park for the people of the city of Philadelphia to use forever.
The opposition wants Fox Chase to find land elsewhere, but the hospital contends that it is imperative for the clinical and research staff to work out of the same campus.
Among those testifying in favor of the project were Mark Schweiker, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and a former Pennsylvania governor; Stephanie Naidoff, director of the city Department of Commerce; Mark Focht, executive director of the Fairmount Park Commission; Al Taubenberger, president of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Bob Young, former president of Fox Chase Cancer Center and now the hospital’s chancellor; and Bill Avery, chairman of the cancer center’s board of directors and former CEO of Crown Cork & Seal.
Schweiker backs the plan because of Fox Chase’s reputation for outstanding treatment and research and the family-sustaining jobs that will be created.
"These are jobs that regions covet," he said.
Focht explained that the Fairmount Park Commission’s paramount mission is the protection and preservation of open space for citizens of Philadelphia. However, he added that the commission understands that it must balance its mission with the city’s need for economic development.
The park commission executive director pointed out that the cancer center will be required to contribute $7.75 million to support Burholme Park and the Fairmount Park system. The annual rent will be $1.25 million, half of which will be used for the maintenance, repair and improvement of the playground, playing fields, wooded parcel and Ryerss Museum at Burholme Park.
"The commission believes that just as a park is an anchor for a thriving community, so is a world-class institution and major employer like the cancer center," Focht said.
If expansion opponents were hoping for support from Council, they didn’t get it.
Councilman Jack Kelly (R-at large) said most people know someone affected by cancer, adding that he doesn’t think the loss of a golf driving range to make room for construction will be a big loss.
"You can hit golf balls somewhere else," he said.
Councilman Bill Greenlee (D-at large) believes Fox Chase’s mission and world-renowned reputation outweigh the loss of parkland.
"It’s not Wal-Mart. It’s not Applebee’s," he said.
Councilman Jim Kenney (D-at large) rejected the argument that the will should be preserved. He recalled that courts approved breaking the will of Stephen Girard, who directed that his money be used to educate only white males at a boarding school. Today, the enrollment at Girard College in North Philadelphia is overwhelmingly black.
The black Council members at the hearing — Darrell Clarke, Marian Tasco, Blondell Reynolds Brown and Donna Reed Miller — were lobbying the cancer center to promise to hire minorities during construction and when the new permanent jobs are created. They noted the presence of mostly white union workers in Council holding signs reading, "Fox Chase Saves Lives" and "Say Yes to Fox Chase."
After intense questioning by Clarke, who was unhappy that Fox Chase’s minority hiring goal was 18 percent to 25 percent, the cancer center caved and upped the figure to at least 25 percent.
Gerald Waln, a cousin of Robert Waln Ryerss, testified that he wants his relative’s 1902 will upheld.
Paul Canty, a Burholme resident, wants Fox Chase to move into one of the city’s many abandoned buildings.
Tim Kearney, a West Mayfair resident and two-time challenger to state Rep. John Perzel, submitted testimony arguing that the cancer center should expand at another location.
He blasted the Fairmount Park Commission for offering land for a variety of uses. He likened the commission to the Department of Commerce and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, and quoted singer Joni Mitchell, who complained in a song that "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
"The commission has lost its way and is failing to live up to its mission," Kearney said.
Fred Maurer, a member of Friends of Ryerss and Friends of Burholme Park, said the expansion would "destroy" the park. He believes the high-rise buildings would interfere with fresh air. He terms the proposed lease a "giveaway" that would deprive city residents of green space while helping out mostly suburban employees of the hospital.
"The park was here long before any cancer center," he said.
Councilwoman Reynolds Brown and Council President Anna Verna questioned Maurer, who lives in Olney, about his interest in the project.
"Why am I getting a residency question?" he asked. "I live closer to the park than Councilman O’Neill does." O’Neill lives in the Crestmont Farms section of the Far Northeast.
Mary Tracy, executive director of the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB), vowed an expensive legal battle to stop the expansion. She argues that public land should be for the public, not a private use.
"The twenty acres are prime land," she said.
Jean Gavin, of Fox Chase, contends that the expansion would remove the "guts" of the park and leave only a horseshoe shape. She doesn’t buy the cancer center’s promise to purchase and preserve green space elsewhere in the community.
"There is nothing available," she said. "Nothing." ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com