Clark Park starts planning for renovations

Clark Park, University City's largest public green space, will soon get a face lift -- but the specifics of the proposal are facing community opposition. The City of Philadelphia Department of Recreation, Friends of Clark Park and the University City District have collaborated for more than a year on a plan to revitalize the three-block, nine-acre park. A draft plan proposing possible revitalization of the park was presented at a series of four community meetings, and a revision of that plan will be introduced at another public meeting on May 24. The presentation of the master plan is scheduled for June 21. "[It is] in a draft planning stage," UCD Director of Capital Programs and Planning Eric Goldstein said. "Nothing has been decided. There are no initiatives. We're just not at that stage yet." The proposed plan includes the consolidation of walkways and playground equipment, as well as a renovated basketball court and the addition of small plaza spaces for gathering. The perimeter of the park would be surrounded by wrought-iron fencing to control access into the space. Public rest rooms also would be added. The UCD and Friends of Clark Park held community meetings so the consultant team hired for the project could incorporate residents' suggestions into the redraft of the plan. But as the date for the unveiling of the master plan for the Clark Park Renewal project approaches, some residents say that the changes are impractical. Residents from the surrounding area are concerned about the increased recreational activity that this plan would bring. "The planners need to consider that the plans have a very direct impact on the 100 to 150 households that live right there," said area resident Richard Womer, a professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Womer, who lives in Regent Square -- the region most affected by the park's activity due to its proximity to the park -- said that the draft plan presented "overdevelopment." Not only would the plan result in a loss of green space -- which is on the decline since the construction of the Penn-assisted school on 42nd and Spruce streets -- but it would also draw more people to the park than the community could support, according to Womer. "My assessment is that there is no community consensus," said Andrew Cole, an area resident and publications manager for the Penn Linguistic Data Consortium. According to Cole, the plan is a "smorgasbord" of ideas, and it is the community's job to further evaluate those ideas at the fifth community meeting. "Things are still in flux," Friends of Clark Park President Cynthia Roberts said. "Each time we meet, their are still refinements that take place." The first three community meetings were used to brainstorm ideas for the development of the park, and the fourth introduced the draft of the renewal plan. A fifth meeting has been added to present the redraft of the proposal, which is now available online at the UCD's Web site. The UCD and Friends of Clark Park will attempt to secure money for the park through a fundraiser tomorrow. Funds accrued at the second annual 'Party for the Park' event will only benefit the park's landscape maintenance fund and not the revitalization project. Now in its second year, organizers need to raise $8,000 for the maintenance fund from individuals in one week in order to achieve its 2001 goal. With only one week left to go, individuals have already donated $12,000 and corporate and institutional sponsors have pledged more than $50,000. These numbers are shy of last year's contributions, when individual donations amounted to more than $20,000 and corporate sponsorship provided an additional $60,000 to the fund. The UCD and Friends of Clark Pard will fund the revitalization of the park mainly by means of a grant issued them in September 2000 by the William Penn Foundation.