PCPC adopts city-wide vision portion of new comprehensive plan

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission adopted the citywide vision portion of a new comprehensive plan – the first such plan the city has had in decades – at a special meeting at Moore College of Art Tuesday night.

Commission Executive Director Gary Jastrzab kicked off the evening’s presentation at 6 p.m. with a slide show that presented a wish list of action points for the city, offered by planning insiders as well as  ordinary folk. These included more open space, bike lanes and preservation efforts, as well as specific goals including an extension of the Broad Street subway to the Navy Yard, an east Market Street that can really be Philly’s ‘Main Street’, a waterfront lined with parks.

Work has already begun on the next stage of the comprehensive plan process, the development of 18 district-level plans. The district plans will be more detailed goals for clusters of similar neighborhoods.

Alan Greenberger, commission chair and deputy mayor for planning, economic development, and commerce also cited other vital components of the city’s efforts to re-examine itself, including the Zoning Code Commission and the Citizens Planning Institute. Many recent graduates of the latter program were on hand.

Greenberger gave a brief slide presentation that ran through the broad goals of the plan. The strategies and projects it delineates will cost, he said, about $43 billion, and will serve a city that is projected to grow by about 100,000 people to a total of 1.6 million.

Greenberger also  touched upon the 18 Districts that planners have carved the city into, calling them a “geography that corresponds to how we think of the city . . .  logical territories for what residents think of as their world.” The first two districts to be tackled will be West Park and Lower South, with special attention given to commercial corridors, transit oriented development, and land use, he said.

The Commission then adopted the Citywide Vision as proposed by the planning staff, with Vice Chair Joseph Syrnick making a motion, and the rest of the group seconding it en masse.

Download the complete citywide vision or a summary at www.phila2035.org.

FULL STORY AND VIDEO TO COME

JoAnn Greco contributed to this report