Council to consider proposed Wissahickon expansion

Posted 7/8/15

The highlighted Dodge tract that is currently under consideration by the Council. If City Council passes Bill 150475 when it returns from its summer break, The Wissahickon Valley section of Fairmount …

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Council to consider proposed Wissahickon expansion

Posted

The highlighted Dodge tract that is currently under consideration by the Council. The highlighted Dodge tract that is currently under consideration by the Council.

If City Council passes Bill 150475 when it returns from its summer break, The Wissahickon Valley section of Fairmount Park will be add six acres to its current 1,800 in the near future.

The Natural Lands Trust, which prides itself on being southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania’s foremost conservation organization, plans to donate the six-acre sliver of land between between Valley Green Road and Drum Moir Lane just west Cherokee Street to the City of Philadelphia for the purpose of including it in the Wissahickon Valley Park and the Fairmount Park System.

Proposed by Councilwoman Cindy Bass, whose jurisdiction includes Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy, Bill 150475 is a bill to allow the city to accept this donation. Though it has already passed the planning commission, it is still subject to a City Council vote.

A 1987 conservation easement gave land rights for this parcel to the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association, but this 2015 bill will give the Public Property Commissioner of the City full rights of ownership to the six acres.

The bill explicitly states that the land would not be allowed for development, similar to the rest of the Wissahickon Valley parkland.

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