Residents of East Torresdale say they want more control over the organization that manages the Glen Foerd estate and more access to its records. They’re asking the head of Philadelphia’s Department of Parks and Recreation for help achieving those objectives.
Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell responded to numerous park-related issues during her presentation to the East Torresdale Civic Association on Sept. 12, but the topic of Glen Foerd proved a particularly sensitive one.
Early this year, neighbors learned that the Glen Foerd Conservation Corporation was planning to erect a security fence to keep out night time trespassers, vandals and thieves. Neighbors — some of whom helped create the nonprofit GFCC in 1983 — didn’t like the idea, fearing that a fence would restrict public access. The GFCC manages the historic mansion and surrounding 18 acres under a lease agreement with the city, which owns the site at the confluence of the Poquessing Creek and Delaware River.
The fence issue soon evolved into a dispute over control of the GFCC. In the past, neighbors have held as many as two-thirds of the seats on the organization’s board of directors. But as a result of bylaws changes that took effect last November, neighbors now may hold as few as 20 percent of the seats. The board has 17 members, according to Glen Foerd’s website.
Ott Lovell said that her department has no direct involvement in constituting the bylaws or managing the property, but her office would review the lease. Other publicly owned historic houses around the city operate under similar arrangements, the commissioner said. ETCA Vice President Bill Kennedy said he recently requested a copy of the bylaws, but Glen Foerd’s administration did not release the document. He thinks the bylaws should be public information because they concern public property and a nonprofit organization.
Glen Foerd Executive Director Meg Sharp Walton was in attendance at last week’s ETCA meeting but did not comment about public access to the bylaws. The process to change the bylaws began in February 2015, she said, and included a review of the proposed amendments by a private law firm hired by the board. Ultimately, the board approved the new bylaws unanimously, she said.
As for the fence issue, Sharp Walton and ETCA President Lew Halas said that a committee of Glen Foerd representatives and residents has been meeting to discuss security for the site. Sharp Walton and Halas agreed that the talks have been productive and that their scope could be expanded to include other topics relevant to the site.
On another park-related topic, Ott Lovell said that her department has invested a lot of time and resources into bolstering programs at Pleasant Hill Park, which includes fishing ponds and the boat launch facility on Linden Avenue. The department hosted a Love Your Park day there and has supported numerous volunteer work days in partnership with the Friends of Pleasant Hill Park. Movie nights and youth fishing days have attracted thousands of people throughout the summer.
“It’s a real hidden gem and I know a lot of you want to keep it that way,” Ott Lovell said.
Indeed, some neighbors complained that park programs have brought excessive vehicle traffic onto the neighborhood’s narrow streets. They asked the commissioner to employ better controls on illegal parking.
The Friends of Pleasant Hill Park meets on the last Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the park’s child play area near the boat ramp parking lot. Volunteers are always welcome to attend.
In an unrelated issue, Halas announced that the civic association has filed an appeal to a recent decision by the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment to approve the erection of two digital signs on the roof of a warehouse at 9310 Keystone St. The adjoining signs would measure more than 1,400 square feet combined and feature rotating messages with internal illumination. Attorney Sam Stretton has agreed to represent the civic association in the case before Common Pleas Court. ••
