Keeping Up with the Delaware Waterfront

Last year, we shut our eyes and daydreamed about everything the Delaware Waterfront could be, with a little help from the masterminds at Penn Praxis, who have taken the lead in the thought process about what will happen to our languishing-far-too-long waterfront.

While the Action Plan for the Central Delaware is a 10-year project, the Central Delaware Advocacy Group (CDAG), a volunteer org that focuses on the Delaware's development, is making it easy to keep tabs on the labor of love: They just released a progress report on the project. The report details the 10 goals of the action plan and grades each goal's progress. CliffNotes, if you will:

What's looking real good: The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, or DRWC (a happy replacement for the corrupt Penn's Landing Corporation) has been doing wonders with regards to public input and transparency. The DRWC has also commissioned a master plan meant to guide development. It should be released in 2011. Both Race Street Pier and Pier 51 are being developed into parks. We can expect work to begin on Race Street Pier in 2011.

What's lagging behind: The action plan calls for extending key streets to the river, which means that casino streets like Shackamaxon and Reed must be opened for public access. The city's going to have to fight developers for them and it has yet to do so.  While parking on the central Delaware is one of the plan's goals, the monstrous proposed casino parking lots would wall off the waterfront. The plan calls for a 100-foot greenway along the waterfront, but it's not in the current zoning plan. The CDAG notes that there will still be a chance to rewrite the zoning plan.

CDAG chair Steve Weixler says that the organization plans to release a progress report at least once a year, maybe even more frequently if there are new developments.