Wissahickon and Poquessing Creeks, and the Natural Lands Trust helped to protect the land around the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 332 acres in total, earlier this year via a conservation easement.
Opportunity Sites 77 Green2015 has identified sites under private ownership for which discussions are already underway about the sites’ value as green space. These sites range from formerly industrial riverfront parcels, which are needed for wetlands to compensate for largescale development elsewhere along the river, to a series of smaller parks that have already been constructed but that are not yet fully accessible to the public. Sites identified in discussions with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Former National Heat and Power site, Schuylkill River and 49th Street, 17 acres 3801 South 58th Street, Schuylkill River and 58th Street, 28 acres Navy Yard, South Broad Street and League Island Boulevard, 21.5 acres (various parcels) Former Philly Coke site, Delaware River and Orthodox Street, 70 acres. PIDC controls the riverfront side of this site, which represents 11 acres of potential future green space. Byberry meadow parcel, Carter Road and Southampton Road, 30 acres Privately owned sites in Philadelphia identified by the Philadelphia International Airport as wetland opportunities as a part of its $5.2 billion expansion plan Former National Heat and Power site (see above) 3801 South 58th Street (see above) Former Philly Coke site (see above)
Port Richmond Rail Yards, Delaware River from Cumberland Street to Indiana Avenue, 200 acres Former Dodge Steel site, Delaware River and Unruh Street, 24 acres Former Pinnacle Casino site, Delaware River from Beach Street to Schirra Drive, 50 acres Parcel between Robbins and Deveraux Streets, 13 acres Parcel south of Tacony Boat Launch, 11 acres Parcel at Princeton and New State Road behind Tacony Boat Launch, 10 acres Parcel north of Bridge Street, Delaware River and Bridge Street, 17 acres Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission boat launch property, Delaware River and Walbach Street, 12 acres Property between South 58th Street and South 61st Street along the Schuylkill River, 17 acres Parcel between 84th Street and Bartram Avenue, over 100 acres Please note that many of the sites identified here appear in other parts of the document, where they are listed as being ideal for new public green space. Institutional sites identified as green-space opportunities Temple University: •
Temple University Quadrangle, Berks Street and Liacorous Walk, 1 acre
•
Tuttleman Field, 12th Street and Montgomery Avenue, .4 acre
•
Friends Hospital, Roosevelt Boulevard and Langdon Street, 47 acres. Adding these 47 acres presents a unique opportunity to extend the corridor of protected land along Tacony Creek. These lands could be added via easement if the hospital wanted to maintain ownership.
Other opportunity sites within private ownership either have already been greened or provide value to existing communities. Such sites include “Clean and Green” sites, community gardens and urban farms, cemeteries, unofficial parks, places of worship, and private and parochial schoolyards. Example sites are listed below. “Clean and Green” sites, a part of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Vacant Land Stabilization Program, are generally small (the average lot size is 1600 square feet, about 1/30 of an acre) and privately owned. Assemblages of contiguous parcels in underserved neighborhoods could be worth examining further as transformation opportunities. Examples include the following: 3300 C Street, 2.7 acres 3301 North Lawrence Street, 2.4 acres 1100 West York Street, 1.6 acres (currently functioning as Village of Arts and Humanities art park) 3230 C Street, 1.5 acres Parcels between 37th and 38th Streets, Folsom Street to Mantua Avenue, 1.3 acres Parcels between Ninth Street and Delhi Street, Susquehanna Avenue to Dauphin Street, 1.3 acres
University of Pennsylvania: •
Shoemaker Green, University of Pennsylvania: 33rd Street and Smith Walk, 3.75 acres
Green2015
93