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In this episode, I sat down with Lee Jordan and Bonnie Hallam, two leaders in the fight to keep the Mozino tract in Drexel Hill as open green space. Lee is the vice chair of the Upper Darby Planning Commission; Bonnie is the recently retired chair of the township’s Environmental Advisory Committee. We covered what’s actually on the parcel, how a for-profit developer came to write the township’s own rezoning ordinance, the economics of paving over the last big piece of green space in Upper Darby, and what winning could actually look like. Here’s the conversation for those who’d rather read than watch.
What’s actually there. The Mozino tract is about 15 acres of forest with 65-year-old trees and the Colin Brook creek running through it. It was originally part of the Collinbrook Farm before being subdivided, and Mr. Mozino bought it in 1960. It’s private property — Lee and Bonnie haven’t set foot on it — but from the adjacent Collinbrook Church land they’ve seen the deer, birds, and mature canopy up close. It’s also fragile: steep slopes and the creek mean only about 60% of it can even be built on. And it’s not just any lot. As I noted in the conversation, it’s the last open space parcel over ten acres left in Upper Darby, and it has sat in the township’s comprehensive plans as land worth acquiring going all the way back to 2004.
Two paths into the same fight. Lee came to it about a year ago, when developer Rockwell Development brought a plan to the Planning Commission — the first she’d heard the land was even for sale. Bonnie has been tracking Upper Darby’s open-space fights for years. She’d joined the successful effort against an apartment complex on the nearby Thompson tract, which is what first made her and others realize how few of these spaces were left. Back then, former Mayor Keffer had set aside ARPA money to acquire both the Thompson and Mozino tracts and was seeking matching county and state funds — but the budget got redirected, and open space came off the table. Bonnie kept going to Planning Commission meetings, which is how she caught wind of the Rockwell plan and started showing up to say no.
The vote, and a first-ever dissent. Lee was one of only two commissioners — alongside president Jeff — to vote against recommending the Community Mixed Use (CMU) rezoning. Her reasoning: the comprehensive plan that supporters kept citing also stresses how little open space Upper Darby has and calls for redevelopment of existing properties, not developing the green space that remains. She and Jeff also flagged concerns about spot zoning — everything surrounding the parcel is R1 single-family homes — and the legal exposure that comes when an ordinance is changed to benefit one developer. For the first time either of them can remember, the two dissenting members documented their reasons in a written appendix so council could see exactly why they voted the way they did.
The developer wrote the ordinance. Here’s the part that should stop people cold: the rezoning ordinance was written by the developer’s own attorney. Lee described a Planning Commission meeting unlike any she’d sat through — the township brought a solicitor (they never have one), the developer brought what looked like three attorneys, and the residents showed up representing only themselves. What the rezoning does, in practice, is flip the burden onto the community. As things stood, Rockwell could already build roughly 56 single-family homes by right; to do mixed use, the developer would have had to go to the zoning board and prove a hardship — a tough case, since you know what you’re buying. Instead of that route, the township pursued a zoning map amendment, and suddenly it’s residents who have to fight. I also submitted a right-to-know request and got back essentially nothing of substance — only Greg Lingo’s own email describing what the commission decided. The commission never received an independent staff analysis of the project.
Not anti-development — anti-this. Both were emphatic on this point. They support community mixed use; it already exists all over Upper Darby, and there’s a mixed-use project underway right now on Walnut Street with retail downstairs, affordable apartments upstairs, and green space around it that everyone’s happy about. Their objection is the parcel, not the concept. Bonnie’s question for anyone worried about housing: why put high-end housing on the last piece of forest when the township needs affordable housing everywhere — and CMU-driven redevelopment is exactly where that affordable housing belongs? There’s no shortage of places that could actually use it: 69th Street, the old Sears, the tired corridors that keep turning into ghost towns.
The economics. Lee’s sharpest argument was financial. A big new development looks great on the books right away — a quick tax bump — but as roads, services, and school seats age and fill, the long-term maintenance costs fall back on existing residents. She served on the Upper Darby school board and knows the district is at capacity even with a new middle school coming; adding hundreds of homes’ worth of students isn’t fair to the kids already there. And she framed it as a public safety issue: State Road is already hard to move on, a micro-hospital is going up less than a mile away, and the nearest full hospitals are Riddle or Lankenau. Pack in that many homes and a medical emergency on that road becomes genuinely frightening.
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The linked fight over affordability. When I raised council’s own data — that roughly one in five Upper Darby households spend over half their income on rent — Bonnie’s answer was that developing Mozino does nothing to solve it. High-end housing on a fragile forest parcel isn’t affordable housing. She also read resident Noah Field’s early appearance at the Planning Commission, where he backed the rezoning before neighbors even spoke, as more about supporting the idea of community mixed use than this specific site.
A path to actually saving it. This is where there’s real hope. The Save the Mozino Forest group formed in late June/early July and Bonnie announced it at the July 15 council meeting. Bonnie also leads the Tree Tenders of Upper Darby, who’ve planted more than 2,000 trees over seven years — about what’s standing in that forest, though she’s quick to note new saplings can’t do the work of 65-year-old trees. Some of the region’s foremost conservation groups are reportedly ready to help fund a purchase, with a meeting set with Kyle McIntyre — chair of the planning, zoning, and building code committee — who has publicly said he supports saving the forest. His support is helping stall any council vote while the funding package comes together. Council member Brian O’Neill, who represents the district, and Melissa Dinofio Bazone, head of the environmental and public health committee, are also expected at that meeting. And a conservation bond on the November ballot could unlock county matching money; Bonnie went to county council, where Elaine Schaeffer voiced support, and the county had once earmarked Greenway funds specifically for the Mozino tract before the acquisition fell through.
What winning looks like. Their vision splits two beautiful ways. Lee imagines an environmental center and a walking trail connected to the adjacent Collinbrook historical site, where 12,000 students a year already come to learn — a place kids could reach by public transit without leaving the township, instead of driving to Haverford for a walking path. Bonnie could happily see that, or she’d be just as satisfied letting the forest regenerate toward a 100-year forest, planting now so young trees can succeed the old ones and the land keeps cleaning our air and water and cooling the neighborhood. What neither wants is litigation — a waste of township money — which is the realistic worst case if council passes the CMU. First, they want to convince a majority of council to step back and table it.
How to get involved. The single most useful thing before council votes: reach out to council members, send letters, and show up to meetings — and wear green. There’s power in numbers, and at the last meeting residents literally stood up to be counted. Spread the word to neighbors, church groups, anyone, because a lot of people still don’t know this is happening. And sign the petition. As Bonnie put it, council needs “cover” to vote no — they have to see that an overwhelming majority of the township opposes developing this parcel, not just a handful of speakers. Find the action steps and the petition at SaveTheMozinoForest.org.
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