The work of the Central Delaware Riverfront Planning Process will culminate in a large public exhibition which will serve as a presentation of the plans for the project area. This exhibition will likely include models, both physical and virtual., to demonstrate the effect of the plan's implementation. In addition, Penn Praxis will present a final report to the Central Delaware Riverfront Advisory Group. This report will include recommendations for implementation that will be open and transparent and accountable to the civic voice that created the plan.
Here are some additional resources too detailed to include in the official report, but very informative nonetheless. They provide further information behind different elements of the Central Delaware Planning Process, and a closer look at some of the design ideas themselves.
Notes from the Civic Process
The hallmark of the Central Delaware Riverfront Planning Process was the comprehensive civic engagement that distinguished it from previous riverfront development efforts. Designed by PennPraxis and the Penn Project on Civic Engagement, the process put citizen input at the forefront, serving as the basis for the main design frameworks of the civic vision: movement systems, parks and open space, and land development.
This page includes a full inventory of notes from the civic engagement process, featuring an overview by Harris Sokoloff, faculty director of the Penn Project on Civic Engagement and lead designer of the process. The notes from the civic process were written by moderators trained by Sokoloff to facilitate civic dialogue. The moderators assisted in the public input process in the Value Sessions in December 2006, the Principle Sessions in February 2007, and the Civic Feedback Sessions in August 2007. The notes are organized by session, and also include the materials distributed to participants at the meetings describing the discussion exercise.
The notes are meant to be reportive and descriptive. They report in broad terms the work of each small group and plenary session from the various public forums during the Planning Process. The reports are also skeletal and suggestive, appearing without commentary, so that those who did not attend the forums can get a sense of the work of participants in each session.
Value Sessions: December 11-14, 2006
- Preparation Materials
- Value Session #1, December 11 -- Saint Anne's Social Hall, Kensington
- Value Session #2, December 13 -- George Washington School, Pennsport
- Value Session #3, December 14 -- Independence Seaport Museum, Penn's Landing
Principle Sessions: February 12-20, 2007
- Preparation Materials
- Principle Session, #1, February 12 -- Saint Peter's School, Society Hill
- Principle Session, #2, February 19 -- Saint Anne's Social Hall, Kensington
- Principle Session, #3, February 20 -- Furness High School, South Philadelphia
Civic Feedback Sessions: Summer 2007
City Plan Change Process
The following document outlines the process behind changing the official City Plan in Philadelphia. It was submitted by the Board of Surveyors of the City of Philadelphia.
View the document here.
Philadelphia Waterfront Zoning
City Council approved the Waterfront Redevelopment District (WRD) zoning classification in 2005. It was designed to encourage development along the extensive shoreline of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Its establishment was motivated significantly by the conditions of the North Delaware Riverfront.
The WRD is one of the few codes in the city that is optional and requires the landowner to apply for its designation.
Click on the links below to retrieve the zoning language itself, or the Design Advocacy Group's analysis of the zoning code, as commissioned by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council in May 2007.
Subconsultant Reports
The design work was led by PennPraxis in collaboration with the design firm Wallace Roberts and Todd LLC and the staff of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Other private consultants contributed with research and analysis in specialized areas. Each consultant submitted reports to PennPraxis, the main elements of which were summarized in the civic vision document. Their full reports can be found here at PlanPhilly.
Economics Research Associates (ERA) is an international consulting firm that works primarily in real estate, entertainment and leisure, and land use policy and planning. ERA helps clients understand their markets and assess risk.
In 2007, ERA submitted a report to PennPraxis for the Central Delaware Riverfront Planning Process. It includes a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) analysis that demonstrates the opportunities presented by this sort of revenue structure. Click here to open the PDF of the ERA report.
Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin is a multi-disciplinary community planning and design firm with an extensive practice in transportation. Other services including environmental, master planning, landscape architecture, parks planning, regional planning, hospitality design, and wayfinding.
Glatting Jackson works in urban and suburban contexts nationwide, including work for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Route 202 in Montgomery and Bucks Counties.
In 2007, Glatting Jackson submitted multiple reports to PennPraxis as part of the Central Delaware Riverfront Planning Process. They included comparing the cost and utility of various public transit technologies, the value of one-way versus two-way road systems, and an impact study showing how projected auto traffic increases along the central Delaware would be dispersed in a new gridiron street pattern versus the existing road structure.
Click on the links below to view the Glatting Jackson reports.
Andropogon Associates is a leading landscape architecture firm in Philadelphia. Andropogon offers landscape architecture from an ecological perspective. Projects range from large-scale regional planning to small-scale intimate design. They most recently completed the plaza and urban landscape design for Thomas Jefferson University's newly transformed campus in Center City, which includes the Dorrance H. Hamilton Building, the Sidney and Ethal Lubert Plaza and a 252-space underground garage.
In 2007, Andropogon submitted a report to PennPraxis for the Central Delaware Riverfront Planning Process. It includes a detailed look at the Delaware River as a natural system, its role in larger ecological systems, and innovative technology and policy that can be applied to make future development along the central Delaware sustainable.
Click on the following links to view the Andropogon report.
Philadelphia City Planning Commission
Below is a link to the home page of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, the city agency responsible for guiding growth in Philadelphia and partner in the Central Delaware Planning Process. Executive director Janice Woodcock served as the Chair of the Central Delaware Advisory Group.