Cancer center
expansion? Hold on!

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

It looks like Fox Chase Cancer Center will have to wait until the start of 2008 for the final piece of legislation that will allow a massive expansion project.
The cancer center wants to expand into 19.4 acres of the 60-acre Burholme Park, which is adjacent to its campus at 333 Cottman Ave.
Council was expected to pass the two necessary measures on Dec. 6, but members spent most of the session clashing with union leaders over the number of minorities who will work at the expanding Pennsylvania Convention Center.
At the end of a marathon Dec. 13 session, Council passed a bill that changes the zoning of the parkland to an institutional development district, allowing for construction by Fox Chase.
However, no action was taken on the long-term lease agreement between the cancer center and Fairmount Park Commission.
Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.), who introduced both measures on Nov. 1, said he held the lease bill after a conversation the night before with Carl Primavera, attorney for Fox Chase.
Chris Wilson, vice president for marketing and communications at the center, said only that Fox Chase was "comfortable" with holding the bill.
Wilson added that the cancer center is eager for final passage of the lease agreement so expansion can begin. The center has made it clear in the past that it must expand at its current site, and that it would consider moving all or part of its campus to assure that staff work together to beat cancer.
"We’re really committed to it," Wilson said. "We are going to expand one way or another."
Wilson explained that, before the lease is approved, Fox Chase wants more flexible dates for the start of each construction phase.
Dr. Robert C. Young, chancellor and former president of the cancer center, called the IDD an "important step forward," but he wants the land transfer ordinance passed by Council next month. Fairmount Park Commission gave its OK in March 2005.
In 1980, Fox Chase treated 800 new patients per year. This year, the figure is about 7,000 and is expected to double by 2015. In addition, the center sees 70,000 outpatients a year. The planned expansion includes a new hospital, an outpatient treatment center, advanced research facilities and a parking garage. The cost will be $1 billion over 20 years. About 1,500 permanent jobs will be created.
"This has been a lengthy process that has already had a significant impact on our ability to provide care for cancer patients in the area," Young said.
"We need to be able to develop and move forward with an expansion strategy."
O’Neill is satisfied with planned traffic improvements to accommodate the new vehicles that will come with increases in the number of patients and employees. Still to be determined is whether Fox Chase will be able to buy and preserve land to make up for the ground it is taking from the park.
There’s a verbal agreement between the cancer center and the councilman that Fox Chase will spend $4.5 million to buy land when it becomes available in the Burholme and Fox Chase neighborhoods.
However, that’s easier said than done. Both neighborhoods are heavily developed.
"I know Fox Chase and Burholme like the back of my hand," said O’Neill, who has been in Council for 28 years.
"It’s very conceivable that land might not be able to be purchased. It’s pure geography."
If no land is available, O’Neill is pushing for the money to be spent in the neighborhoods on other improvements. He said the communities would determine their needs.
Mayor John Street is hoping the lease bill will reach his desk before he leaves office on Jan. 7, but that appears unlikely. O’Neill said there’s no hurry, adding that construction crews aren’t lined up at the park gate.
"No one besides Mayor Street cares if it happens at the end of ’07 or the beginning of ’08," he said.
If the lease bill becomes law, opponents of expansion into the park will try to convince Orphans’ Court to reject the deal because Robert Waln Ryerss stipulated in his 1902 will that the park land is to be for the citizens of Philadelphia. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com