Save Marple Greenspace Objects to the Delco Woods Masterplan … and the Name
From Save Marple Greenspace
In a few weeks, Council will be presented with the masterplan draft for the new county park at the former Don Guanella Village. While the plan has some nice features on paper (like a wetlands boardwalk), there are still some serious issues with it. Hopefully, when this is shown to County Council, it’s not presented to the public as a fait accompli but as a flexible starting point. Here are some aspects of the plan that should be addressed:
*The main park complex juts into the woods almost to the former dump site, replacing several acres of forest. This complex should have a smaller footprint to maximize forest preservation.
• Several large circular open areas would orbit the main complex, creating many hundreds if not thousands of linear feet of “forest edge” which would degrade the quality of “interior forest” conditions necessary for many bird species. Edges are also where invasive plant species begin their colonization of a forest.
• The draft calls for a new 1/2 mile asphalt path to be cut into the woods. This feature runs counter to the prevailing sentiment at the O’Hara open house where the vast majority indicated that the Don Guanella woods should be left in their natural condition. Covering the forest floor with a six foot wide swath of asphalt almost 3,000 feet in length will not only create a half acre of new impervious surface which will shed more stormwater to nearby tributaries of Darby Creek; it will represent a significant additional taxpayer expense of upwards of a million dollars to build something that already exists at several nearby parks. It would also take untold future sums to maintain it in perpetuity. Setting aside the cost of just maintaining the asphalt, there is the significant labor cost of keeping such a trail open. Trees that fall on unpaved trails don’t have to be cleared, but a paved trail will need frequent expensive clearing when funds are already scarce for the county.
• This new county park should not duplicate amenities offered at other nearby parks. Smedley, Little Flower, Rose Tree, Glen Providence Park, and several nearby township parks, etc. all have expansive lawns. Many of these township/county parks have paved trails, too. Does county park staff need more lawn to mow and maintain? And how useful is a trail that’s just 1/2 mile long?
• The plan still bizarrely calls for a bus stop INSIDE the park even though SEPTA has a bus stop on Sproul Road barely two hundred feet away.
• Lenape Woods does not need a “park drive.” If you’re looking to take a car ride through a park, head out to Ridley Creek State Park or Smedley Park. A corollary of this road is that it expands the footprint of the main park complex and will significantly add to the construction expense. It might look nice on paper, but this loop park drive also invites more traffic into the park for purposes of cruising.
• Another massive unneeded expense is the canopy trail high in the trees. This is not Bushkill Falls. Aramark might generate the funds from gate fees to build walkways through the trees, but doing it at Lenape Woods is an unnecessary extravagance.
• This plan is far too busy and tries to do too much. We shouldn’t lose sight of what county residents at the O’Hara open house wanted: “to preserve nature” and “to experience nature.” Council should ignore many aspects of this plan and keep the new park more natural than artificial. Doing so would save tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
In the end, building everything on this plan would cost far too much. Scaling it down will free up funds for point to point rail trail extensions that actually should be paved: Darby Creek Trail, Chester Creek Trail, the Radnor Trail, Octorara Trail, etc. Spending too much on Lenape Woods (after buying it for $23 million) will take money from other county parks which also have serious infrastructure needs.
Why Name the Park after Lord Delaware?
Why would we name a park with the word that news and entertainment media frequently use to poke fun at us? “Delco” might work for a new hoagie line at Wawa, but should it really be the name of the last large patch of woods in eastern Delaware County? “Delco Woods” sounds like the place where a body is found in the Mare of Easttown sequel…or a line from the writers room at Saturday Night Live.
Few people seem to realize that this name really honors Thomas West, a British aristocrat from the early 17th century (3rd Baron De La Warr), who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1610 not long after his fellow colonists warred with the Powhatan Tribe and just 9 years before the first slaves were brought to Jamestown. So, should we honor an English immigrant with the name Delco Woods or should we pay homage to the original inhabitants of our region, the Lenni Lenape? They lived on this land thousands of years before the Angles and Saxons even colonized Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire. Shouldn’t the park name say that we remember that these people lived here first and took care of the land – as we frequently do not? Most supporters of preserving Don Guanella agreed: the informal ranked choice polls conducted last year yielded “Lenape Woods County Park” as a clear winner.
If Council is in doubt whether county residents will support it, then let a referendum question on November’s ballot settle the issue.
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