Decision on whether 48 heritage trees in FDR Park can be taken down to build fields is coming next week
Parks and Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy are asking for a special exception to remove these large trees and allow them to move forward with plans to install five multipurpose fields, four basketball courts, four baseball diamonds, as well as tennis and pickleball courts. A picnic grove, playground, and parking lot would also be carved out in that part of the park.
“I think that plans for public spaces have to be in favor of improving and maintaining all life, not just animal and plant life, human life as well,” she said.Work on the park makeover has already begun and is scheduled so no one part of the park is out of commission for too long. A playground designed to embrace what experts call “risky play” Meanwhile, a welcome center near Broad Street and Pattison Avenue slated to have 14 bathrooms and community spaces remains in progress.