Parks group: Temple boathouse proposal falls short

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Parks group: Temple boathouse proposal falls short

POSTED: Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 2:47 PM
The proposed boathouse site

Tonight, at 6 p.m. at Lloyd Hall on Boathouse Row, Philly's Parks and Recreation Commission will hear comment from the public on a proposal by Temple University to build it's own boathouse by the Schuylkill River near Kelly Drive. As we previously noted, the plan is controversial since it's the first test of a city law requiring anyone who wants to take city parkland to provide a similar parcel of land elsewhere as a substitute. Some say it doesn't bode well that the very first applicant for parkland is trying to bypass that provision, by offering funding instead to cover upgrades to the park.

Temple, in its proposal, essentially named its own price for the land, offering to spend $1.5 million to help renovate the East Park Canoe House and to improve nearby infrastructure. It argued that no appropriate substitute land exists, since the city law requires the land to be "of at least equal value, size, and park or recreational usefulness as the land to be transferred or converted." However, the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, an advocacy group, says there are several such parcels that could and should be considered as substitute land — and that those include plots the city is already looking to acquire to build its waterfront trail network. As a result, says the Parks Alliance's Lauren Bornfriend the proposal "should be sent back. It should not go any further."

"The Alliance would have been happy to share this information with Temple if Temple had met with the Alliance to discuss the proposed transfer or conversion, an issue addressed in greater detail in comment 3, below. The Commission should require Temple to evaluate these and other parcels," the Alliance added in a statement.

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