Logan Square

ACC height, density right for PCPC

mgolas — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:58:17 -0500

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Nov. 18
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

The 20-somethings at the door didn’t seem as if they were being paid, but one couldn’t help but do a double-take. It’s not every day that you see YIMBYs – Yes-In-My-Back-Yard folks - handing out professionally printed posters. It was enough to make one jittery that Election Day was not over after all.

“Build it!” the posters scream. “We support ACC.”

The ACC of their desire is, of course, the American Commerce Center, the 2.2 million square-foot, $1.1 billion, 1,500-foot-high, behemoth, mixed-use, would-be tower slated for 18th and Arch streets. Developers for the project were again on the agenda for Tuesday’s monthly meeting of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, and again they dominated the afternoon. Approval was sought for a zoning re-mapping ordinance (C4 to C5) and other amendments such as an exception to special height limits of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway controls.

Of course, NIMBYs were in the house, too. In fact, the house was a specially chosen one to deal with the expected ACC-inspired crowd: the auditorium of the Friends Select School, not far from the Planning Commission’s normal monthly meeting location atop One Parkway. Because of the amount of public comment at previous meetings, Deputy Mayor Andrew Altman limited Tuesday’s comments to two minutes. Some two dozen people signed up to speak.

“We did have a hearing before, where we heard extensive testimony,” Altman said.

The developers and architects were given as much time as they needed for full presentations, updated a bit, and they took it, with several sets of slides, a healthy amount of public lobbying and a presentation of the project’s economic benefits by a consultant, ultimately stretching the meeting toward dusk (it started shortly after 1 p.m.). There was a presentation on the environmental wonders to be employed by the building, and a demonstration of parking and traffic issues and studies.

There were good points to be made on both sides of the issue, but a big result of the ponderous, mostly redundant information sessions from the architects was a slow filtering out of the assembled public, many of whom might have had other things to attend to – such as, say, jobs.

“Really the fundamental question before us today” relates to the strict request for re-zoning, the density, the trajectory of the central business district and the incentives for the public, Altman said.

“The second set of questions get more into the specifics of the plan of development” – the plazas, the loading docks and the impact studies. “I think those, we can all deliberate on when it comes back to us. I don’t think we have to make our decision based on whether we believe all of those studies are adequate or we have to accept all the conclusions of those studies.

“There’s going to be another time to do that with the plan of development, and more conversation. As you heard many people say, ‘This is an ongoing conversation with the members of the community.’ So I think we should note those.”

Regarding the benefits, Altman said his impressions were that PCPC director Greenberger and the staff did a “very good analysis as to where the [central business district] is headed, that it isn’t just Market Street and JFK ... In fact the reality is that the ACC “is appropriate for more density and greater height and can handle this kind of development as the core of Philadelphia looks to its future.”

He told Greenberger he did a very good job on the re-zoning recommendation, and that the series of bonuses that accompany the C5 re-designation are mostly appropriate, but that if certain aspects of the design are buttonholed for a while – like the verification for LEED certification and a review of the public concourse – it “does make sense to separate out.

"It’s not a huge impact, but I think if it’s going to be applied ... we should look at it applying fairly across the board to all of what would be the office core. So it could benefit this development, it could benefit other developments.

“Again, this starts a process,” Altman stressed, but the ordinance would not take effect until the plan of development was approved, and with that, “many of these details get approved. “I’m very supportive of the staff recommendation. I think there’s been a lot of work done.”

Follow-up work would include a more clear definition of the line between the central business district and residential neighborhoods, he said.

He motioned to approve the staff’s positive recommendation, and it was granted.

One way or another
Steve Mullin, the former city Commerce Director and current principal at Econsult Corp., hired to assess the development, addressed property values surrounding the site, and the likely increased earnings, taxes and economic activity. “One thing we’ve noticed with Comcast and the Cira Centre,” he said, is that office-users have moved up in terms of quality, while low-end office space was converted into apartments or condominiums over the past decade.

“I know one thing – 1.5 million square feet of office space will be built in this area, in this time frame,” Mullin said. “Why not here,” instead of points north of Bensalem or way out west in Chester County? Acknowledging the current credit crisis that is freezing any kind of commercial real estate development from Boston to Los Angeles, Mullin said that the building is at least four years away.

“Timing could well be perfect,” he said, especially since it meets not only local needs, but national objectives – by maximizing public transportation, minimizing the use of cars, investing in infrastructure (all you hear right now is “Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure!” Mullin exclaimed) and the erection of an environmentally friendly office tower that is mixed-use, not closed off to the public.

Peter Kelsen, legal counsel to the developer, said the proposal was of “masterful design and an iconic piece of architecture,” and that some changes since a July presentation to the commission have been built on that. With the commission’s recommendation for zoning changes, the bill goes before City Council’s Rules Committee in early December. “Finally and perhaps most important,” Kelsen said, is that a “refined plan of development” only then would come back to the Planning Commission.

In addition to challenges posed by the Planning Commission staff to create additional substance to the concourse that would connect to Suburban Station via the new Comcast Center underground infrastructure, vertical connection to the third- and sixth-floor active public garden areas were added or improved, Kelsen said.

“Tens of millions of dollars in tax ratables” will be had during the construction period, Kelsen said, with up to 9,000 permanent jobs after that. Over its first decade, hundreds of millions in tax revenues will be the yield from the ACC alone, not to mention development that comes in its wake.

Development 101
“For cities to succeed, they need to change and they need to grow,” said Eugene Kohn, the globally respected head of the architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC. He then pretty much repeated the classroom-type presentation he gave the commissioners and the assembled public a few months ago – the one that can now be categorized as the slightly patronizing one, including the bit about the Eiffel Tower originally being vehemently opposed by Parisians of the time. And how it is unimaginable that the Benjamin Franklin Parkway might never have been built. Or that City Hall changed the scale of Philadelphia. And so on.

Kohn did stress that the American Commerce Center would be essentially two buildings, dominated by office space in the main body and the hotel in the secondary leg, joined by a unique mid-level public garden suspended at about the height of Billy Penn’s hat. He said that the design was “sensitive to view corridors” in the way it is situated, a response to one of the big complaints from denizens of the adjacent Kennedy House and its neighbor, the Sterling, on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

“This building will give a crescendo” to the other towers of the skyline, Kohn said. “It is the density that this project has” that allows amenities for the public.

Dense
“Density” was the key word. Commissioner Alan Greenberger, presiding over his first official meeting as full-time executive director, said that he had met with the developers, Logan Square neighbors and residents of the Kennedy House to navigate a “sense of where this ought to go.”

“The essential question, as the staff sees it, is about density,” Greenberger said. He said that the staff is fine with lifting the height restriction. Since plans call for the ACC’s massive spire to top out at half-again the height of the Comcast Center, that’s no small thing, since the limit for the current 18th & Arch site is less than 130 feet, a result of restrictions and setbacks from the nearby Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

As for the re-zoning from C4 to C5, the thinking is that it works, given the density of buildings on JFK that do not have not publicly accessible space, including the Kennedy and the Sterling. More important, office tower development since the late 1980s bunched north off Market Street and toward the Parkway, when it seems like the logical continuation would have been west, Greenberger said.

A reason it did not, Greenberger said, might be that a major transit station was planned for blocks just west of 18th Street. “In the view of the staff, had this whole area been subject to some sort of analysis” over the past decades (which Greenberger said it had not been), the area toward 19th and 20th streets would have been designated C-5. “That part of the ordinance makes sense to us.”

As for traffic and other issues, “Our instincts are that the developers are correct,” Greenberger said, but “further and more refined analysis” was needed on the extension of the underground concourse and certain environmental concerns. Any zoning changes granted would be contingent on a successful plan of development in the coming months.

There were assorted, minor questions from several other commissioners before the floor was finally opened to owners of dissenting opinions. Unlike the ACC builders, they were hampered by the buzzer, sounded when their mere minutes were up.

Contact the reporter at tom@thomasjwalsh.info.

A report on other matters heard before the Planning Commission will be posted here Wednesday.

Home Page Summary

Planning Commission blesses American Commerce Center plan, and with some reservations, sends it along to City Council Committee on Rules.

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Written By

Thomas J.W

Publish Date

November 18, 2008

Abstract

How rail plays infrastructure role

mgolas — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:55:36 -0400

Bio

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Aug. 27

By Alan Jaffe
For PlanPhilly

(This is the seventh in a series of stories examining the infrastructure projects proposed in the Civic Vision and Action Plan for the Central Delaware. This article looks at the railways that have had a long, remarkable history on the Delaware River and the possible future of rail on the waterfront.)

Previous stories:
Infrastructure overview
Parks and green space
SEPTA funding
Grappling with I-95
Center City Commuter Connection
The Street Grid

The seven-mile stretch of riverfront from Allegheny Avenue to Oregon Avenue was once the dominion of the rail car. The Pennsylvania Railroad brought freight from the south, rolling down Washington Avenue to the waterfront to unload or pick up cargo at the massive piers. In the north, track after track after track ran along Lehigh Avenue to the waterfront, carrying the coal-black Reading Railroad cars, which hauled millions of tons of anthracite from upstate Pennsylvania for shipment up and down the coast and around the world.

A couple of active lines still run from the Lehigh Viaduct. In South Philadelphia, rail cars still stack up near the freight yards, blocking vehicular traffic. And plans are moving forward for the expanded Southport project beyond the Walt Whitman Bridge.

But on the Central Delaware waterfront, the rule of the rail is over. Colliers awaiting the black fuel no longer line the port. The piers mainly house parties and condos, not cargo. The rail yards are part of an irretrievable industrial past, displaced by technology and geography.

A modernized rail, however, could play a part in the rejuvenation of Center City’s eastern shoreline and help turn it into a 21st-century urban waterfront.

The Northern Yards

From the early 19th to early 20th centuries, the northern Delaware riverfront was known as “the workshop of the world,” a center of industrial manufacturing in Bridesburg, Fishtown, and Kensington.

Cramps Shipyard, now destined for razing and redevelopment, was an economic engine in the region, producing wooden clipper ships and then iron and steel warships for the Civil War through World War II.

The other driving force on the waterfront was the Reading Railroad terminal at Port Richmond, fueled by the steady stream of coal cars coming down from Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon and surrounding counties. Eastern Pennsylvania contained some of the country’s richest seams of anthracite, a dense, high quality coal that was touted as a clean-burning energy source. Western Pennsylvania boasted huge bituminous fields, but that coal burned quickly and dirty.

“There was an advertisement at that time that said, ‘Keep your daughters’ and wives’ dresses clean by using anthracite,’” said Dave Schaaf, an urban designer at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

“It was found in Eastern Pennsylvania, just above us. So the Reading Railroad builds lines to those counties. And that’s why Port Richmond develops the way it does, with all those lines to the water, running down along Lehigh Avenue,” Schaaf said. “It was such a desirable coal, it was distributed to the world.”

Colliers, the ships that bore the coal around the intracoastal United States, lined the ports where dozens of railheads met the water. The Reading Railroad’s enormous infrastructure at Port Richmond moved 2.25 million tons of anthracite in the mid-1870s, according to the website “The Necessity for Ruins” (http://ruins.wordpress.com/category/port-richmond-coal-terminal).

The Reading line also transported materiel to the Pennsylvania steel plants, and fruits and vegetables from farms to markets, including tomatoes to the Campbell’s Soup plant in Camden. It was also a major passenger railroad.

But the collapse of the coal business in the 1950s was the turning point for the Northern Central Delaware industrial base. The dozens of tracks to the waterfront grew silent and vacant. Most have been removed from the grasslands that have sprung up on that vast section of the riverfront.

A couple sets of tracks that run down from the Lehigh Viaduct still carry oil and chemicals to the Tioga Marine Terminal and the remaining industries in the area, explained Adam Krom, a transportation planner at the Philadelphia office of the design firm Wallace Roberts & Todd. Conrail, the federally created corporation that resulted from the bankruptcy of the country’s major railroads, owns the tracks and land where rail is still active on the Northern Central Delaware.

Rail and the Port

Besides the end of the coal economy, the rail lines were also limited by the city’s geography. “We were one of the last of the original colonies founded, and there’s a reason for that,” Schaaf explained. “We were the only colony with no Atlantic frontage. All the great ports were taken by the time William Penn gets Pennsylvania.”

Boston Harbor, New York Harbor, Baltimore Harbor, Hampton Roads and Norfolk Harbor – all well known and thriving. “But have you ever heard of Philadelphia Harbor? There isn’t one,” Schaaf said. “This doesn’t negate the fact that we had the largest freshwater port in the world for quite a long time.” But the competing ports, including the neighboring Elizabeth and Newark, have 50-foot drafts in their harbors. The deepest channel on the Philadelphia side of the Delaware is 40 feet to the bottom.

“The governor and the Delaware River Port Authority want to dredge our channel to 45 feet. Our channel is 103 miles long,” Schaaf said. “So our geography does not exactly work for us. We’re not a great natural harbor. The harbors that really do well on the East Coast are the ones right at the Piedmont, where you have the Atlantic coastal plain meeting the Piedmont right at the harbor,” creating deep water at the port.

The Delaware River could comfortably carry 17th and 18th century vessels with relatively shallow hulls. But 20th century shipping eventually made the port at the northern section of the city obsolete.

“Containerization forced ships to be not only enormous, but to actually be stacked really tall,” Schaaf continued. “You can take the containers off at Elizabeth and Newark, make trucks out of them and send them everywhere. Apparently we can’t get a containerized ship below the Walter Whitman Bridge. The Tioga Marine Terminal does have containerization, but it has to be a specific kind of ship.”

Before World War II, “when ships didn’t need a very deep draft, we did fine. Now, our channel is just too shallow.”

The Port to the South

To the south of the Walt Whitman, the expansion of the Southport project is under way. The plan calls for a major, best-in-class containerized facility with the potential of employing 175,000, handling 3.5 million containers a year.

The rail yards in the south remain active, and there are no plans to relocate or in any interfere with those lines in the Action Plan for the Central Delaware, Krom said. “That area will remain very important from a freight-handling standpoint and as a working waterfront.”

The major issue in that area involves the impact of stacked freight cars blocking autos and trucks on Columbus Boulevard, explained Nando Micale, a principal at WRT who leads the firm’s planning and urban design group. The Action Plan and Civic Vision developed by PennPraxis and designed by WRT shifts the tracks slightly south, closer to the industry and piers serviced by the rail lines.

“There’s nothing incompatible with increased port activity, including intermodal rail-truck-ship connections, in the Civic Vision,” Krom said. Some changes to existing track configurations and the street network may be needed, “but there will be no change to function. It will improve function, in fact,” he said.

The Pennsylvania Railroad was the leading line in South Philadelphia and the piers near Center City. The railroad came down to the waterfront from Washington Avenue. The port shifted south over time, and the Philadelphia Belt Line Railroad Company, a consortium of railroads, carried trains all the way to the Navy Yard. The waterfront was “sort of neutral territory for all the railroads, so the shipper could choose which one it wanted to use. The Belt Line allowed for interchanging among the different railroads,” Krom said.

Bob Turner, a consultant for the Belt Line, explained that it was chartered in 1889 “to break up the monopoly of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which controlled the Philadelphia waterfront.” The Belt Line brought in the Baltimore & Ohio and other companies “to make sure the waterfront was open to competitive rail service.”

The Washington Avenue tracks are now gone, and there are few working piers on the Central Delaware. The active railroads to the south are CSX, Norfolk Southern and Canadian Pacific. CSX and Norfolk Southern now own Conrail, although Conrail has served since 1998 as a switching and terminal railroad that operates as an agent for its owners, allowing access for both carriers.

Craig Lewis, vice president of corporate affairs at Norfolk Southern, confirmed that the railroad companies provide no freight service “north of, roughly, South Street.” Norfolk Southern also has been in talks with Foxwoods Casino representatives about doing some reconfiguration so that trains do not travel above the casino’s location, if it is built.

But Lewis said Norfolk Southern’s focus is on business around the Navy Yard, where the company has plans for a new intermodal facility and active rail service in the “relatively near future.”

The company’s longer term program is called the Crescent Corridor, a plan to improve rail infrastructure along Interstate 81 from North Jersey to West Tennessee and divert freight from highways to tracks. “Part of the game plan anticipates new or expanded terminals,” Lewis said, including Philadelphia’s Navy Yard.

As the port is expanded, and if the Action Plan’s proposals for naturalizing areas of the waterfront and creating a street grid to support land development are realized, the southern section of the Central Delaware should complement the rail infrastructure, Krom said. “It will actually neaten up a lot of operations over time.”

A New Role for Waterfront Rail

In the early decades of the 20th century, an elevated rail line ran from Frankford Avenue and down Delaware Avenue, where passengers transferred to the ferries to cross the river. As the port evolved, larger ships docked at larger piers, and ferry service declined with the opening of the Ben Franklin Bridge. The elevated track was torn down.

Passenger rail along the Delaware was briefly revived in the 1990s with a trolley line that serviced the Penn’s Landing area, but it had limited success on a waterfront that never realized its potential.

But that same right-of-way used by freight trains in decades past and by the trolley more recently could host a 21st-century track. “The Vision Plan established the idea of potentially having a waterfront light-rail line,” Krom said. The new line could promote riverfront development, provide residents access along the river, and reduce congestion on Columbus Boulevard, he said.

“Light rail generally means fast, higher capacity, modern service, and more efficiency,” Krom explained. “It holds more people, it doesn’t interfere with traffic, and it moves with its own power.”

While the light-rail line in South Jersey uses diesel power because it covers the long route from Camden to Trenton, the Philadelphia line would probably be an electric-powered rail, Krom said.

The right-of-way down the center of the boulevard in the Penn’s Landing area is held by the Belt Line in joint ownership with Conrail, said consultant Bob Turner. “There is not much in the way of industry anymore” in that stretch of riverfront, he added, and “we do not operate at all. … We’re in a sort of holding pattern; our main purpose in life is to make sure there is competitive business on the waterfront.”

If the Belt Line company allows light rail service on the right-of-way, it would reduce start-up costs considerably, Krom said.

Creation of a rail line down the median of the boulevard, in concert with other pedestrian- and bike-friendly changes along either side of the highway, would reduce auto traffic from six to four lanes. But the Action Plan estimates that a high-frequency streetcar line will be able to transport 2,000 to 3,000 passengers per hour in each direction. “That’s almost twice what a car lane would have carried,” Krom said. “So you’re not losing capacity. You’re just shifting people from automobiles to transit.”

A streetcar line would also reduce parking lots along the waterfront, Krom said. “Tourists will have to park just once. They can access all the destinations on the waterfront by riding light rail. If they come by mass transit, they’d need zero parking spaces.

“Residents wouldn’t need as many cars because car share and light rail would be available to them. So it will help with congestion. And it will cut the high cost of building parking lots,” he said.

The Delaware River Port Authority, which operates several bridges and the PATCO Hi-Speed Line, is already exploring several alternatives for light rail along Philadelphia’s waterfront.

“An Alternative Analysis study is now under way, which is the first step in the process for applying for federal funding,” said John Matheussen, chief executive officer of DPRA. “We’re looking at potential ridership, cost factors, and environmental impacts.”

The three alternatives under consideration all involve light rail, Matheussen said. “These are street level or underground lines, all complementary to systems already in place. We’ve had good experience with the River Line in New Jersey. This is what light rail is built for.”

Fifty percent of the funding for such a project would come from the federal government, Matheussen said. “The cost of these alternatives is in the high hundreds of millions of dollars up to a billion dollars. We would look for the rest to come from DRPA, the state of Pennsylvania, their trust funds, potential private alternatives, and public-private partnerships.” However, the vast majority large price tag is needed to extend the light rail from the riverfront to Center City; the construction of just the riverfront tracks itself would only cost a very small fraction of this nine-figure amount.

DRPA is half-way through the process of choosing an alternative, he said. The agency’s last round of public input on a waterfront light-rail project will occur this fall. (To view the PATCO alternatives, go to www.patcopaexpansion.com.)

Micale, of WRT, said any transportation system has “funding challenges. It comes down to federal policy. Other cities have funded such projects themselves, or they figured out ways to fund it with minimal federal money. Those tend to be cities in major growth markets; Philadelphia and other East Coast cities tend not to be.”

But in examining successful urban waterfronts, “it’s hard to find places that have not created light-rail systems,” Krom noted. He lists Toronto, Seattle, and San Francisco, which is working on a second light-rail line on its southern waterfront. Many European cities have also incorporated light rail in waterfront renewal. “What most cities are striving for is access to the river,” he said.

From South to North

The PennPraxis proposals recommend a light-rail line that runs the full length of the Central Delaware, from Oregon Avenue to Allegheny Avenue, and possibly beyond in several directions.

“It could extend upward from Oregon Avenue as a major east-west railroad that ends up at the Sports Complex,” Micale said. Other east-west connections could also be made linking the line to Center City along Washington Avenue or Spring Garden Street.

It could also link up with the North Delaware Greenway under construction in Northeast Philadelphia.

The old rail yards to the north have long been the focus of an open space or greenway plan that crosses the city and connects its two great rivers. The path could thread itself around the still active right-of-way running down from the Lehigh Viaduct, “a rails and trails” project as opposed to rails-to-trails, Micale said. “But there’s still a lot to do in-between.”

The light-rail line could also stimulate redevelopment in the southern section of the northern rail yards, which Schaaf noted contains the largest amount of vacant land on the Central Delaware.

Lewis, of Norfolk Southern, noted that some of the PennPraxis plans for the northern rail yards are “probably in conflict with the value of that real property. Unless the community makes some acquisitions” of land, there could be friction between developers and planners. “But I don’t think these things are insurmountable,” he said.

Much of the desirable land on the northern section of the Central Delaware is owned by Conrail, which continues to operate a train five days a week for “a number of customers” in the Tioga Marine Terminal and Port Richmond area, said Conrail spokesman John Enright.

Conrail has sold defunct rail yards in the area around the Walt Whitman Bridge over the past year to the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, but “we don’t have any specific project in development at this juncture” for the real estate in the north Central Delaware, Enright said.

Conrail is aware of the PennPraxis proposals for mixed uses for the old rail yards, including development and green spaces. “We haven’t met or sat down with PennPraxis about their vision at this point,” he said.

“As a railroad,” he continued, “if we have vacant property and there is an opportunity to develop rail service, that is certainly our preference. That’s not to say we wouldn’t take into consideration other factors, such as the PennPraxis vision or anything else. …We really haven’t had any dialogue with PennPraxis at this point.

“Meanwhile, if an opportunity arrives for developing rail business, we will certainly look at it. We are always open-minded for new rail business,” Enright said.

The northern rail yards have “always been seen as a site for redevelopment,” said Micale, of WRT, “though they’ve never consummated a deal there.” The adjacent Cramps Shipyard grounds are also viewed as a likely site for early action because of the access to the highway and its proximity to Center City.

“The idea is that the boulevard and light-rail initiatives would bring you all the way to this area, so you would set the framework for development in the southern portion of the Conrail site,” he explained.

And a light-rail line could bring new hope to an area where rail was once king.

Contact the writer at alanjaffe@mac.com.

Home Page Summary

A modernized system could help rejuvenate Center City’s eastern shoreline and help turn it into a 21st-century urban waterfront.<br /><br />

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Written By

AlanJ

Publish Date

August 27, 2008

Abstract

Join Governor Rendell and Mayor Nutter on Thursday

mgolas — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:45:08 -0400

Start: 07/17/2008 - 12:00pm

End: 07/17/2008 - 2:00pm

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End: 07/17/2008 - 2:00pm

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On behalf of the Mayor's Office, Governor Rendell and Mayor Nutter would like to invite you to two press conference events on the afternoon of Thursday, July 17th to announce the partners, funding and scope of the enhancement project along the Parkway and the development of Hawthorne Park in South Philadelphia.

The press conference on the Parkway will take place at 1pm on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, between 20th and 21st Streets. The event is rain or shine but in case of heavy weather will relocate indoors to the Moore College Of Art and Design. Both Governor Rendell and Mayor Nutter will speak.

The 2 pm press conference will take place on the future site of Hawthorne Park, located on 12th Street between Clymer and Catharine Streets. Mayor Nutter will be joined by DCNR Secretary Mike DiBerardinis, who will speak on behalf of the State.

Both of these projects will play a crucial role in the economic and cultural development of the city by creating active and attractive public spaces for residents and visitors alike.

Come on out to learn more about the scope of the projects and to celebrate the announcements with community leaders and project stakeholders. Please email Katharine Gajewski, Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, Office of Mayor Michael A. Nutter, at katharine.gajewski@phila.gov with any questions or to RSVP. Feel free to share this invitation with anyone you think might be interested in attending.

The Mayor, Govenor and DCNR Secretary hope to see you on Thursday!

The Parks Alliance

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Levy's trail gets nod from mayor

mgolas — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:36:27 -0400

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June 27

By Isaac Steinberg
For PlanPhilly
The developing vision for a trail that would allow Philadelphians to jog, bike and walk along the central Delaware Riverfront was given a serious boost by Mayor Michael Nutter Thursday night during the presentation of the Central Delaware Advisory Group’s 10-step, 10-year action plan for the waterfront.

During a speech at the Independence Seaport Museum, Nutter pledged that the city will match the $250,000 William Penn Foundation grant issued last year for the creation of a seven-mile trail.

Trail architect and Center City District President and CEO Paul Levy has been championing the early-action project, which would initially run from the Wal*Mart in South Philadelphia to Penn’s Landing.

“To me, it is very simple,” Levy said. “Six to nine months from now this can be accomplished.”

Taking advantage of the Schuylkill River trail - while in progress

Levy likened the effort to the successful trail along the Schuylkill River and said the purpose of the multi-use trail is to give back a significant part of the waterfront to the people of Philadelphia.

The trail "would allow Philadelphians to get on the waterfront every day,” he said. “I will not ride a bike with my daughter on Delaware Avenue. We need a safe place for our kids.”

Levy also said the trail could connect cyclists to the Ben Franklin Bridge and the already developed bike and walking trail along the Camden waterfront.

Nutter also noted that the trail – which he would like up and running in the next few months - would positively impact his plan to increase Philadelphia’s population by 75,000 people within the next 10 years. “The waterfront area with the bike trail will help contribute 10,000 people” to that effort, he said.

In a previous article written by Matt Blanchard http://www.planphilly.com/node/1802, Levy had this to say about the project. “The trail is more than an investment in recreation; it's an investment in public opinion. The more people out there using the riverfront, the more we have a constituency for public amenities on the waterfront.”

Contact the reporter at tua88396@temple.edu

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June 27, 2008

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Kimmel Center Civic Feedback Session

andrewg — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:31:51 -0400

Start: 04/14/2008 - 6:00pm

End: 04/14/2008 - 8:30pm

Start: 04/14/2008 - 6:00pm

End: 04/14/2008 - 8:30pm

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DUE TO OVERWHELMING ADVANCE RESPONSE, REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CLOSED. COPIES OF THE PRESENTATIONS AND FEEDBACK FORMS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE AFTER THE EVENT. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

This marks the next round of public input in the Kimmel Center Public Space Project, organized by PennPraxis and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and sponsored by the Kimmel Center to develop ideas on how to further enliven the building's public spaces.

The Civic Feedback Session will give citizens the opportunity to view initial design concepts developed for the Kimmel public spaces and provide feedback in response to the ideas that will help enrich strengthen the work.

Design students from University of the Arts and University of Pennsylvania will present their ideas, all of which grew from the Design Principles developed out of the public forums held in January. The Principles will serve as the basis for the public dialogue.

6:00 -- registration

7:00 -- presentation in the Perelman Theater

8:00 -- discussion in Commonwealth Plaza

9:10 -- design panel in Perelman Theater

9:30 -- end

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Logan Square – Parkway Neighborhood Plan

mgolas — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:05:43 -0500

Start: 01/09/2008 - 6:30pm

End: 01/09/2008 - 9:30pm

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Community Meeting Announcement

The Logan Square Neighborhood Association is embarking upon an ambitious planning process to create a neighborhood plan.

The first Community Forum will be held on Wednesday, January 9th at 6:30 - 9:30 pm Moore College of Art & Design, 20th & Parkway.

Residents and business owners of Logan Square are encouraged to attend this meeting. It is an opportunity to be involved in crafting a vision for the future of the neighborhood.

This meeting will begin with a presentation on the existing conditions in the neighborhood and then break into small groups for a workshop. The primary focus of the meeting will be identifying the neighborhood’s issues and vision related to transportation, open space, development, zoning, and quality of life (safety, streetscape, lighting, retail, and other amenities).

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The Caves

mgolas — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:45:35 -0500

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Most early settlers lived in houses to be sure, but records indicate that many chose to live in caves, a practice which persisted past the 1680s.

According to Watson’s Annals, the caves were dug into the bluff of the riverbank, with sod and wood constructions forming a front wall. Chimneys were made of stones mortared together with clay and grass. Caves existed at Spruce Street, Green Street, and other locations.

As evidence of this, Watson mentions a land deed from 1683 that read “executed and witnessed in the cave of Francis Daniel Pastorius, Esq.” There were also caves of ill repute. A 1685 court document accuses one Joseph Knight of “suffering drunkenness and evil orders in his cave.”

Colonial magistrates had it out for the caves generally, ordering them to be demolished for undermining Front Street in 1685, though one was reported to have survived to 1830.

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Watson’s Annals, 1887

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The need to reform zoning reform

mgolas — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:15:05 -0500

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Timothy Kerner, AIA is principal of Terra Studio LLC, a member of the Design Advocacy Group, and Zoning Committee Co-Chair for the Center City Residents Association

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By Timothy Kerner
Despite the relative slowing of Philadelphia’s real estate market, the rapid pace of development decisions that will change the character of the city has not abated.

Just in December, a 715 foot tall tower on Delaware Avenue was approved by City Council, a 268 foot condo project received approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to exceed Old City’s 65’ height limit, and - of course - two waterfront casino sites were selected by the state Gaming Board. Unfortunately, these decisions and others made by various government agencies were not coordinated by a comprehensive plan for the city. The reality is that nearly every zoning issue is decided on a parcel by parcel basis without consideration for the broader impact on the surrounding areas.

The current zoning code receives such little respect because it is widely perceived that the zoning categories do not adequately address current market realities or benefit the neighborhoods. The code is considered as basically a starting point for ad-hoc negotiations between developers, neighborhood groups and government agencies. There are many risks inherent in this approach. Unplanned development can create detrimental levels of traffic congestion, shut off possibilities to expand public recreational amenities, disregard opportunities to strategically re-direct development activity, and diminish the pedestrian-scaled urban character that makes city neighborhoods so desirable. Clearly, the time has come to reform the zoning code to appropriately guide new development, strengthen the character of the city and positively impact the lives of city residents.

In recognition of this need, City Council members James Kenney and Frank DiCicco introduced a bill in December to create a Zoning Code Commission to reform the zoning code. The bill received support from the Committee on Law and Government but did not receive sufficient support to pass into law when it came before the full City Council. According to Councilmember Brian O’Neil, who voted against the legislation, the bill favored the concerns of Center City and developers; it did not address the needs of neighborhoods such as his in the Northeast. Did O’Neil wrongly support the status quo or are there justifiable reasons for his concerns?

Not surprisingly, one of the primary supporters of zoning reform is the developer community, represented by the Building Industry Association. The BIA seeks to streamline the zoning codes so they are easier to understand and this desire is reflected in the text of the proposed bill. It is a reasonable goal and a strong case for the necessity is made in the BIA publication “If We Fix It, They Will Come.” Philadelphia has 55 different zoning categories and over 30 Special District overlays, each with their own rules that augment the zoning regulations. The combination of categories and overlays are a source of confusion that add time and expense to the development process.

The BIA publication cites the recent zoning reform process in Chicago as a successful effort that reduced the number of residential zoning categories from thirty-two to just ten. But this tells just part of Chicago’s zoning reform story; streamlining was just one of many goals. The primary intentions of the zoning code revisions identified by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development were:
• Promoting walkable neighborhoods and streets
• Planning for parks and open space
• Developing mixed-use districts
• Maintaining transportation corridors
• Creating accessible housing
• Encouraging density near mass transit
• Planning for Manufacturing Districts

Outdated zoning classifications were consolidated but new zoning classifications were created. These new classifications allow for mixed-use development, address the existing urban context, discourage automobile incursion into pedestrian areas, provide character standards for new buildings, increase density allowances in strategically located areas, and allow for the maintenance and increase of park and recreational amenities. Philadelphia’s zoning reform legislation should be rewritten to emphasize similar quality of life priorities. Streamlining is important but just one of many reasons to support zoning reform.

O’Neil criticized the bill for not sufficiently considering the needs of neighborhoods beyond Center City and he has a good point. The bill calls for just two meetings in City Hall as a means to gather public input. This would be highly insufficient. The success of the code revision effort will depend on an appropriate public involvement process. Public opinion must be sought at the community level and meetings should begin in the neighborhoods to identify important local issues. The process should not be a top-down approach, the knowledge needs to work its way upward from the communities. This is the only way to gain the detailed knowledge necessary to the effort and also the only way to gain the community support necessary for the eventual City Council approval of the Zoning Commission recommendations.

Another important question needs to be raised - how can the zoning code be rewritten without an overall plan for the city? One reason the city’s zoning categories are not current is because a comprehensive plan for the city has not been completed for over forty years. How can zoning issues such as the appropriate height of buildings be addressed without understanding where it is most appropriate to have tall buildings? This is a planning question that can only be addressed with an understanding for various city wide aspects such as population density, transportation linkages and supporting infrastructure. Streamlining the zoning code without guidance from a planning effort would not help move the city towards positive growth. The Zoning Reform Commission should be empowered to develop a well-crafted vision of the future of the city. The current version of the zoning reform bill contains no reference to city planning. Successful zoning reform is not possible without a planning process.

Philadelphia needs zoning reform and the zoning reform legislation needs to be rewritten to assuage the concerns of council members and gain sufficient support for passage. The zoning reform bill must address the quality of life issues that are essential to all neighborhoods, mandate an effective public input process and also address the need for a comprehensive plan for the city. Philadelphia possesses a remarkable history of successful and innovative city planning initiatives such as Penn’s original plan, Bacon’s Society Hill revitalization, and more recently, the Schuylkill River Park. It is time to build upon this tradition of excellence and support zoning reform and comprehensive planning that successfully guides the city’s future growth for the benefit of neighborhoods, businesses and residents throughout the city.

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January 18, 2007

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Values consolidation under way

mgolas — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:33:45 -0500

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In January, there will be a consolidation of citizens' core neighborhood and waterfront values identified in three public sessions in December.

The values from the forums are listed below. They will be distilled down to seven or eight primary values:

The main consolidated “values” from the Dec. 14 session at Penn's Landing were:

Walk-ability - green space, the human scale, to walk without interruption, satellite parking
Safety - people on street, lighting, police protection, no slots barns
Ecological protection - green space, sewage, runoff control, green LEED construction.
Big Sky - green space vision, broad sight lines, public access to river’s edge, low lying buildings, density, open space
Diversity - cultural, economic, generational, ethnic, activity, occupational, business, ecological.
Historic preservation - our past.
River itself - recreation, industry, open space, drinking water, touch-ability, contemplation, history, dredging, no dredging
Integration of river with rest of the city.
Community – civic engagement.
Tension between the working river and pretty "playing" river.

“One of the most interesting things I heard was the organic relationship between the river and the land exemplified by the people who work on the river in boats,” said Ryan Berley of Old City.

The main "values" or takeaways from the Dec. 12 event in South Philadelphia were:

Valuing green space, open space
Sustaining the industrial port
Quality jobs on the waterfront are the economic engine for the city
Safety comes with traffic control, crime control, no fear, public transit
Sense of community that starts in the neighborhoods
Neighborhoods protect and enhance community as a whole
Protect the history, the traditions, the Mummers Parade
How schools and churches fit into the waterfront as icons
Appreciate the diversity of economics, ethnicity, culture in our neighborhoods
Get our arms around the long-term solutions vs. short term solutions

Finally, listed below are the values that were established during the first engagement forum, Dec. 11, in the Kensington-Port Richmond section of the city:

Safety - children can play outside, you can walk in the neighborhood
Family values - small businesses that thrive, places to worship, locally owned businesses.
Easy access - you can walk or bike or bus to it.
Diversity - ethnic, lifestyle, multi-generational, economic, diversity of uses, architecture.
Open space and green space - public spaces, playing spaces.
History - existing neighborhoods, old buildings, old architecture. Historic identities.
Jobs - river related and ports related jobs. Jobs for youth.
Green technology - work with the environment.
The plan - looking for something that protects the values already mentioned.
Recreation - using water and land where they meet. Recreation for families.
Affordable housing - for seniors.

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December 29, 2006

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Steering Committee meeting

mgolas — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:30:19 -0500

Start: 01/29/2007 - 8:00am

End: 01/29/2007 - 10:00am

Start: 01/29/2007 - 8:00am

End: 01/29/2007 - 10:00am

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Central Delaware Waterfront Steering Committee meeting. Agenda will include consolidating the values produced in the community civic engagement sessions in December. No need for RSVP.