Cheltenham Township hosted a second public meeting regarding the Robinson Park restoration project on Wednesday, September 25, during which the project’s engineer presented an updated design concept revised with prior public feedback.  

Officials said the meeting was cut slightly short due to a mechanical issue with the boiler at Curtis Hall that made it unsafe to continue the meeting. 

The full presentation is below:

The township held its first public meeting to present the findings of the above work and hear public feedback on Tuesday, June 11. To submit public feedback on the presentation above, you can email Megan Hart, Community Development Coordinator, at mhart@cheltenhampa.gov.

The Friends of Robinson Park is hosting a Community Zoom Meeting on Monday, October 7 at 7:00pm. From their announcement:

The Friends of Robinson Park is a community-led 501(c)3 registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; while our nonprofit status is newly minted as of June 2024, our organization had its humble beginnings 25 years ago when we organized in partnership with the BHAR to protect and rebuild the historic gazebo in the Park.  (Click here to read more about that effort.)

To RSVP and reserve a Zoom link, you can click here.

Phase 1 included a survey of the park, performance of soil investigations, delineation of wetlands, and finally, the preliminary design concept preparation. Construction is expected to start early spring 2026.

From the township’s background on the project:

Located in the Wyncote neighborhood, Robinson Park is a 4.4-acre passive recreation park in the Cheltenham Township Park System.  Approximately 100 acres of medium-density residential and institutional land use discharge stormwater through the center of Robinson Park.  Once within the park, stormwater flows downstream through a concrete channel sealed under a metal grate.  Groundwater emerging from the adjacent hillside is held in a concrete-lined, unvegetated pond that is regularly warmed in the sun and covered with summer algae. The wetland that occurs east of the community garden is fully choked with a monoculture of Phragmites reeds.  Downstream of the park, neighbors experience flooding from the accelerated runoff of stormwater resulting from the lack of stormwater management features in the fully developed upstream drainage area.

The Robinson Park Restoration Project will improve water quality, mitigate flooding, and enhance native habitat by converting 3+ acres from turf grass and invasive plant species to native vegetation for use by songbirds and pollinators, daylighting a portion of buried stream from a confined concrete channel, and installing a forested riparian buffer with water quality features. The project will promote stormwater infiltration and evapotranspiration, and will filter runoff to prevent up to 13 tons of sediment annually from discharging to the Tookany Creek and downstream Delaware Bay. 

The township received the following grants toward the restoration project:

• $44,000 from the Department of Community and Economic Development’s Watershed Restoration and Protection Grant
• $75,000 from Pennsylvania’s Coastal Resources Management Grant
• $363,786 through the H2O PA Grant.

The estimated balance of $400,000 for this project will be paid for using Stormwater Enterprise Funds.

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