CHOP Parking Deck Plan Knocked By Cycling Advocates And Drivers As Urban Parking Debate Heats Up

An unlikely set of allies is railing against the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia's plan to build a remote 1,005-spot garage roughly a mile from its main campus as parking becomes an increasingly contentious urban planning issue.

Given the project at 3000 Grays Ferry Avenue’s by-right status, the seven-story parking deck seems destined to become a reality.

But that didn't stop concerns from cycling and public transit advocates as well as drivers who live nearby as a national debate on how much parking is too much plays out locally.

“We have a list of 15 emails from community members, and they’re all negative,” Philadelphia Civic Design Review Committee Vice Chair Daniel Garofalo said as the body reviewed CHOP’s plan during a meeting Tuesday.

“I’m going to mourn the fact that CHOP offloaded its parking demand to this remote site.”

CDRC, an advisory committee with no governing authority, voted unanimously that CHOP return for a second hearing about the project.

Construction of the lot is set to begin this summer for an opening next fall, a CHOP spokesperson told Bisnow. It will replace a surface lot the hospital is renting on nearby Warfield Street.

“This parking structure will be used for employee parking so our patient families can park as close to the hospital as possible and will replace the current employee parking lot on Warfield Street with the conclusion of that lease being toward the end of 2026,” the spokesperson said.

Large parking areas have been a standard element of development in the U.S. since the mid-20th century, but that thinking has started to shift in recent years as cities do away with parking minimums. Many urbanists believe too much parking decreases a neighborhood's walkability, while researchers have found it leads to elevated multifamily rents.

Many of the CHOP project’s detractors feel it's out of place for a site where a seven-story apartment building was previously proposed.

“This garage facilitates suburban car commuters to belch immense amounts of pollution into the neighborhood,” said Louis Bartholomew, a member of the urbanist group 5th Square PAC. 

“It will make the streets less safe, increasing congestion and endangering folks who bike on the new protected bike lanes on Grays Ferry Avenue.”

Peter Tung, who regularly bikes down Grays Ferry Avenue from his home in Kingsessing, said the additional traffic might worsen congestion on what’s already a chaotic street. 

“This looks like something that would be built in King of Prussia,” he said. “I feel like CHOP is kind of acting like SEPTA doesn’t exist.”

CHOP Senior Vice President of External Affairs Peter Grollman countered that the hospital is a major proponent of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA is set to make major service cuts later this year if lawmakers in Harrisburg can’t come to an agreement about statewide transit funding.

CHOP spends $3M to subsidize fares for its workforce, 22% of whom use public transit to get to work, Grollman said.

Many of the hospital’s employees live deep in the suburbs where transit access is less reliable, he said. A great deal of them also work odd hours which would make commuting via bus or train difficult.

Melissa Freeman lives on Titan Street, which will be immediately behind the parking deck once it’s complete. She worries that residents won’t be able to find parking for themselves if it goes forward.

“On Titan Street, there are no legal parking spots,” Freeman said. “That has not been enforced for some years, but in the past months it has been.”

Residents have been parking on 30th Street, but CHOP’s plans include two new curb cuts on that thoroughfare that Freeman said would take away some of those spaces. The Philadelphia Department of Streets has not yet determined what the status of the spaces along that section of roadway will be once the garage is complete.

CHOP employees will need to pay to park in the new deck. That's a concern for Freeman, who wondered if workers might balk at the fee and leave cars in the surrounding neighborhood before boarding the free last-mile shuttle.

A second Fifth Square member, Ben She, argued that there’s underutilized parking capacity in University City that CHOP should rent instead.

The occupancy rate for public lots with 30 or more spots in the neighborhood immediately around CHOP was 78.8% in 2023, according to a Philadelphia Planning Commission report released last year. The rate for all of University City was 73.6%.

CHOP should be "utilizing these existing resources in the best way possible,” not “outsourcing” its parking needs across the Schuylkill River, She said.

But the hospital doesn’t seem interested in renting an employee parking lot. That’s at least one of the reasons they’re letting their lease at the Warfield site expire.

“CHOP does not own that location, so we needed to find a property we could own to construct parking,” Grollman said.

Residents are also displeased about the aesthetics of the parking deck.

“This is a very unattractive building, and it’s unfortunate that we’re facing such an ugly wall,” Freeman said. “We all have different ideas of what we would want to see.”

CHOP’s attorney Peter Kelman said the hospital is working with the community to potentially add a mural to the facade, but Freeman isn’t on board.

Various neighbors would “all have different ideas of what we would want to see,” she said.

CHOP is committed to continuing the dialogue, Grollman said, which is why he’s given his contact information to Freeman and several of the project’s other detractors.

“I would argue that it’s the right thing to do for us to sit down with those neighbors and have a thoughtful discussion,” he said.