Central Delaware Master Plan is Adopted!

Many have been waiting and anticipating the day a future is secured for Philadelphia's Premier Waterfront and it finally came.  The Philadelphia City Planning Commission unanimously adopted the Master Plan for the Central Delaware Waterfront in its entirety, Tuesday afternoon.  The new roadmap for the future of the waterfront is an ambitious plan, but very realistic.  The plan aims to reunite the city and the waterfront with a system of linked parks and extended city streets.  The Central Delaware Plan is now part of the city's comprehensive plan.  It must be considered by by any city governing body when making a waterfront decision.

CDAG and other fans of the plan say it will re-tie the city to the waterfront, create new recreational and green space and spur economic growth.  Many see the plan as a potential remedy to the paralysis caused by the creation of Interstate 95.  The plan's adoption will make it easier to raise money to make plan projects happen.  DRWC has already raised millions of dollars to implement public projects and will continue to do so in order to encourage and leverage private development of the waterfront.

The plan reconnects city neighborhoods to the waterfront by fostering connections along key streets that generally end in public space.  The series of public spaces, occurring about every half-mile, are linked to each other with a multi-purpose trail.  The plan calls for mixed use development, including residential, commercial and industrial.  View corridors to the water are preserved, and buildings are generally low and mid-rise in illustrations that occupy the plan.  The street grid is extended to the waterfront.