Forums will seek input for city plan

As the first step in an ambitious effort to rewrite the city's nearly half-century-old comprehensive plan, the Philadelphia Planning Commission will begin tonight a series of five community meetings designed to get a sense from residents of how the city ought to evolve over the next 30 years.

Unlike the zoning code - 642 pages of excruciatingly detailed rules and regulations - comprehensive plans are big-picture documents, meant to articulate "aspirations, goals and objectives for how the city wants to develop over the long term," said Gary Jastrzab, acting executive director of the Planning Commission.

The community meetings are called "Imagine Philadelphia," and the commission hopes residents take a broad view. Where should office-space growth be encouraged? What major transportation projects ought the city attempt to get built? Where is public housing needed?

After the public meetings, the commission's staff will draft a series of papers and begin a second round of public meetings, probably in the fall, Jastrzab said. The process will take at least two years.

"It will for the most part be used as a policy guide for the city. It will inform decisions about where we invest our capital dollars, what kind of projects we pursue federal and state funding for," Jastrzab said.

Ideally, the plan also will be used to guide the rewriting of the city's often-criticized zoning code, which a new commission has begun reviewing. That process is expected to take even longer than the drafting of the comprehensive plan.

It is that effort, in which most zoning classifications are likely to be tweaked or rewritten, and the subsequent creation of a zoning map that is likely to prove controversial and difficult, given the direct impact it will have on neighborhoods.

Although the city has created plans for certain sections from time to time, the last true comprehensive plan was drafted in 1960. The practice fell out of favor in the 1970s and '80s, but cities have come back to long-term planning in recent years.

Jastrzab said the Planning Commission staff had pondered writing a new plan for several years. He said the time was right given Mayor Nutter's focus on planning and zoning reform.

Nutter frequently spoke of the need for a commitment to good planning practices during the campaign, and he promised big changes upon taking office. The controversial chair of the zoning board, David Auspitz, stepped down the day Nutter become mayor. The executive director of the Planning Commission under Mayor John Street, Janice Woodcock, also resigned as Nutter took office.

The first "Imagine Philadelphia" meeting is to run from 6 to 8 tonight at the North Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 1510 W. Oxford St.

All meetings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.

Tonight:

North Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 1510 W. Oxford St.

Wednesday:

Lithuanian Music Hall, 2715 E. Allegheny Ave.

Next Tuesday:

Convention Center, Room 102 A-B, northwest corner 12th and Arch Streets.

Jan. 29:

Center in the Park, Auditorium (Vernon Park), 5818 Germantown Ave.

Jan. 31:

Roxborough Memorial Hospital, Wolcoff Auditorium, 5800 Ridge Ave.