More opportunity for residents to shape Lower South, West Park district-level sections of comprehensive plan

City residents will next month get another chance to help shape the first two district-level portions of the city’s new comprehensive plan, Philadelphia2035.

The district-level sections build off of the goals of the city-wide plan, applying them to smaller groups of similar neighborhoods. They will include analysis of current land use and recommendations for future land use, and will help guide the coming zoning remapping process.

At the initial July sessions on Lower South (which includes the Packer Park neighborhood, the stadiums, the Port, Navy Yard and the Food Distribution Center) and West Park (East Parkside, West Parkside, Cathedral Park, Wynnefield, Belmont Village, Wynnefield Heights, Overbook Farms, Green Hill Farms and Overbrook Park) residents told planners about the districts’ top destinations, the biggest barriers to those destinations, and the areas where they saw opportunity for change.

Community planner Jennifer Barr told the planning commission at their meeting this week that staff is a little more than half-way through the six-month process of creating the Lower South and West Park plans.  In addition to the public sessions, staff has studied existing conditions – including taking a look at the quantity and use of city facilities. They’ve conducted interviews with community leaders, Barr said, and have begun drafting plan recommendations

Barr’s presentation, which includes a summary of staff’s findings from field visits to the neighborhoods and the feedback received at the first public sessions, can be seen in this video, from 3:43 to 14:31.

At the September community  meetings, planners will present participants with some alternatives for the district’s future, and an analysis of each possibility.  “It will be a really interactive meeting with a short presentation on our existing conditions and some preliminary recommendations,” Barr said.

The second Lower South session will take place 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12, in the press box at Lincoln Financial Field.  The second West Park session happens 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at the Campion Student Center at St. Joseph’s University.

To learn more, see the comprehensive plan website, http://phila2035.org/.