Bill allowing development in Fairmount Park withdrawn

A bill that could have opened Fairmount Park to housing construction and other development was withdrawn from City Council consideration yesterday after its sponsor decided the legislation's sweep took it far beyond its intended purpose.

Councilwoman Joan L. Krajewski said yesterday she was withdrawing her proposed amendment to the city code for the simple reason that "the legislation was written wrong."

She said her intention was to craft a bill - an amendment to the city's zoning provisions - that would help resolve long-standing problems at Glen Foerd on the Delaware, a historic estate in her district.

Call it the law of unintended consequences, but the legislation introduced earlier this month and scheduled for a Council committee hearing June 3 seemed to have such a wide reach that all of the park's 11,000-plus acres would have been affected.

"All it was trying to do was help Glen Foerd," Krajewski said yesterday of her bill. "I will withdraw the legislation, and I will be working with people to try and help [Glen Foerd]. It's a beautiful place."

Tony Radwanski, board chairman of the Glen Foerd Conservation Corp., said representatives from Krajewski's office, Glen Foerd, and park advocacy groups would be meeting within a week to come up with an acceptable alternative to the bill.

"Councilwoman Krajewski didn't want this to have any effect on the whole park," Radwanski said. "We need to fine-tune it. This should not be an adversarial position. All we're trying to do is preserve this historic site."

Specifically, the bill would have allowed catering facilities, conference centers, detached single-family dwellings, meeting facilities, museums, parking, and "accessory uses." Those activities would have been allowable within undefined "recreational districts" that would have included Fairmount Park.

Michael DiBerardinis, commissioner of the city's newly combined parks and recreation department, expressed concern over the breadth of the legislation. The Philadelphia Parks Alliance said it was "strongly opposed" to the bill, and several members of the outgoing Fairmount Park Commission said they worried about park development in the future.

Krajewski said the whole tempest could be traced to vague language.

"I've been working with [Glen Foerd], and I've been working with the park commission," she said. "I certainly do not want to hurt the parks."