Brewerytown Neighborhood Plan

**CityMaps** · 06-03-2010, 01:46 PM

The first draft of the Brewerytown Neighborhood Plan for public review can be found here:

Brownstoner - Philadelphia: Brewerytown Plan Finally Ready for a Look-See

What do you think?

Personally, I like some of the ideas near the end. I just hope that it gets more traction than the 2006 version, which was done by some of the same people and was meant to serve some of the same purpose.

**boredjake** · 06-03-2010, 03:09 PM

Well done plan. Takes $$ and reduction in crime. Plain and simple. Starting with the simple changes like stores, cleaning up do go a long way however.

I should add that simply adding trees to the street scape makes a ton of difference.

**rjj** · 06-03-2010, 04:17 PM

solid plan. i hope the new store owners will help clean up girard. looks like there is plenty of land and resources that could go to better use as well.

**MM Partners** · 06-03-2010, 05:10 PM

It's a very good plan. It was never finished in 2006 because there was not enough money dedicated towards that goal. The updating and completion of the plan is due to a grant from the Wachovia Foundation, and that winning of that grant opens up the possibility of an implementation grant from Wachovia to carry out some of the recommendations.

In my opinion, the redesign/ improvement of the Rec would be a phenomenal boost for the neighborhood. As would the low-cost infrastructure improvements to Girard Ave.

**phillycat** · 06-03-2010, 06:04 PM

Those streetscape improvements look so nice. Would love to see Girard take off.

**Moonraker** · 06-04-2010, 02:55 PM

The complimentary plan for the Fairmount neighborhood is available at Fairmount CDC | Fairmount Neighborhood Plan

The two plans overlap the area from Poplar to Girard.

**phillycat** · 06-04-2010, 03:16 PM

Sigh. A parking study! A supermarket on Poplar!

Meh.

**thoth** · 06-04-2010, 03:34 PM

Photoshopping a giant, goofy sign over the scummy BP station...interesting.

**CityMaps** · 06-08-2010, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Moonraker

The two plans overlap the area from Poplar to Girard.

An area where 2 entities own vast areas of undeveloped land. That would be great if they showed any realistic inclination to do anything productive with them.

**boredjake** · 06-08-2010, 04:33 PM

It's hard when there's not a ton of private money floating around.
That's why starting with simple eye level changes is a good starting point. Of course a reduction in crime is clearly the #1 improvement needed (as with just about any neighborhood in the city).

**CityMaps** · 06-08-2010, 06:30 PM

Obviously, but we didn't need a plan to tell us that.

Those blocks (Gravely Bros, etc) sat that way when there WAS plenty of money floating around.

**CityMaps** · 02-14-2011, 05:48 PM

Item #5 on the tentative agenda for tomorrow's Planning Commission meeting:

"Acceptance of the Brewerytown Neighborhood Plan"

Did anyone here have anything to do with creating it? I won't be able to make the meeting and am interested in seeing what they came up with.

**raider.adam** · 02-14-2011, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by CityMaps

Item #5 on the tentative agenda for tomorrow's Planning Commission meeting:

"Acceptance of the Brewerytown Neighborhood Plan"

Did anyone here have anything to do with creating it? I won't be able to make the meeting and am interested in seeing what they came up with.

It was the CDC with Fairmount CDC oversight. The civic didn't have much involvement outside of Rebecca Johnson from the Fairmount CDC presenting and getting some feedback.

Let me know when you want to grab a drink sometime and I can give you some of the info I have.

**Moonraker** · 02-15-2011, 09:08 AM

As of Tuesday 0900, the link to the Plan (pdf file) in the Brownstoner article is not working.
I was taken to this URL http://interface-studio.com/isftp/BT...oAnimation.pdf

UPDATE BELOW

The plan is at http://www.interface-studio.com/isft...Plan_FINAL.pdf

The bad URL appears to be the summary, which may be the booklet handed out at last Thursday's FCA meeting.

**The Count** · 02-15-2011, 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by CityMaps

The first draft of the Brewerytown Neighborhood Plan for public review can be found here:

Brownstoner - Philadelphia: Brewerytown Plan Finally Ready for a Look-See

What do you think?

Personally, I like some of the ideas near the end. I just hope that it gets more traction than the 2006 version, which was done by some of the same people and was meant to serve some of the same purpose.

What is the point of these plans?

Why do people waste money on "plans" that don't lead to anything.

NoLibs didn't have a "plan", but Bart Blatstein did. Bart had a plan and money.

A plan without money is pointless.

Private capital driven by the expectation of returns is what fuels change in a neighborhood.

Plans are just something impotent community councils busy themselves with absent any developers/investors giving a crap about their neighborhood.

**CityMaps** · 02-15-2011, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by The Count

Private capital driven by the expectation of returns is what fuels change in a neighborhood.

You need a plan so that those expectations can be defined.

**The Count** · 02-15-2011, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by CityMaps

You need a plan so that those expectations can be defined.

I don't know if I agree with that.

Developers and real estate investors aren't stupid; their projects cost a ton of money (even the smaller ones) so they spend a lot of time doing their research and homework on an area, it's called due diligence. And most, if not all, could care less what some pie-in-the-sky master plan shows.

Their decisions are based on reality, current zoning, the time and cost associated with obtaining variances, and traffic counts, and demographic data, etc.

They don't care if somebody shows them a photoshopped picture of a "Welcome to Girard Ave" sign, (incidentally, East Falls has been trying to get a sign and island like that installed at Kelly Drive and Midvale for 8 years now and it still hasn't happened).

**CityMaps** · 02-15-2011, 12:33 PM

Are you a developer?

The "pie in the sky" aspect is so if-and-when money is found, it can be allocated according to a big picture...piece by piece, of the pie, if you will. If you think it is for something to be done all at once, you will be disappointed. It is kind of like how kids still make Christmas lists, even those who know the aren't going to get exactly everything on the list on Christmas Day. Maybe when Grandpa needs an idea for little Johnny on his birthday, he'll dig up that Christmas list. In the case of a neighborhod master plan, Grandpa can be a developer, the city, a quasi-public agency,a utility company, etc. Without that big picture, resources are not allocated in an efficient manner. Taking that a step further for urban areas with multiple stakeholders, you could say that without a big picture document, resources are not allocated in an efficient manner AND neighborhood groups can hold up any good idea that a developer may have. The sign for Mt Airy will probably come when the local powers-that-be* get money for a sign...and when they do, they will know where to put it and approximately what it is expected to do.

Developers with money in hand may do a conceptual site plan for a certain area under their control, but that is something different.

Granted, many Master Plans are worthless if they are mere "studies" or do not present many real ideas or paths to implementation. Fairmount Neighborhood plan is an example of one.

*= Mt Airy USA and/or Streets, I'm not familiar with the plan so I don't know who promised you a sign

**Big Irish** · 02-15-2011, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by CityMaps

Granted, many Master Plans are worthless if they are mere "studies" or do not present many real ideas or paths to implementation. Fairmount Neighborhood plan is an example of one.

What "real ideas" does the Brewerytown plan possess that makes it any better than the worthless Fairmount plan?

**CityMaps** · 02-15-2011, 01:49 PM

I don't know...I haven't seen the final version yet. I was just defending the idea of a "plan" at all.

Fairmount plan isn't completely worthless, so I shouldn't have said that, because I actually like it. However, it wasn't much more than an inventory and parking study. A contact at PCPC tells me it sits on a shelf collecting dust for that reason.