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COMPREHENSIVE OPEN SPACE PILOT STUDY
Philadelphia is home to some of the region's most treasured open space resources. From Fairmount Park's expansive and diverse river parks, lively Rittenhouse Square, and the National Park Service's Independence Mall to lesser-known parks, like Philadelphia's many neighborhood parks, gardens, and playgrounds, all of these provide City residents with the opportunity to play, relax, and interact with one another.
A comprehensive open space plan is essential for the City to enhance and maintain existing parks, as well as to acquire new parks and open space in the places that need them most. The plan must address the diverse open space needs of Philadelphia, from improved and enhanced play areas for our children to more greenways for exercising and commuting, and from reclaiming our waterfronts for leisure to managing stormwater and improving air quality.
There are a number of efforts underway to improve the City's open space network, including the efforts of the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, the New River City Initiative, the Water Department's stormwater management pilot projects, and the School District's Campus Park Program. A comprehensive citywide open space plan will knit together these various efforts and help to build the successful open space system which is essential to maintaining and attracting businesses, residents, and visitors alike.
This pilot study, funded by the Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Council, allowed the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) to begin laying the groundwork for a citywide open space plan. To do so, PCPC set out to accomplish three things:
- Assemble all the open space data available to date, assess its accuracy, and determine what is missing;
- More closely examine the available data in two pilot study areas (Southwest of Center City and Frankford) to test some of our assumptions about how the available data can be used to determine where open space is needed and how to address deficiencies; and
- Hear from local and national experts on the state-of-the-art in big-city open space planning and, ultimately, weigh the lessons learned in our pilot study with lessons learned in other places to make recommendations for developing Philadelphia's citywide open space plan.
The final report of this pilot study, entitled Planning Philadelphia's Open Spaces, and its accompanying Pilot Study Appendices are provided as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Click on the titles below to view and download these files.
Planning Philadelphia's Open Spaces (7.3MB)
Pilot Study Appendices (9.8MB)
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FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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