* The city's combined water and sewer system flows through century-old pipes, and their capacity is overwhelmed by every heavy rain, flooding streets and polluting rivers.
* The zoning code is antiquated and undergoing revision. Alan Greenberger, head of the Philadelphia Planning Commission, uses the current zoning map to illustrate just how out of balance old codes are. For example, the city's industrial area includes 21,000 acres, more more than twice the acreage of the Fairmount Park system.
The Planning Commission is working with Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) on a study that inventories and makes recommendations for industrial land use throughout the city.
Infrastructure and land use go hand in hand.
Another priority for planning will be a focus on mixed-use zoning - how to develop and use a property in a way that includes different functions and uses.
Think of "It's a Wonderful Life" when George Bailey, with a new lease on life, runs down the avenue in Bedford Falls, yelling Christmas greetings to all the people and buildings, from the movie house to the cops to the "wonderful old Building and Loan." A mixed-used neighborhood is really just your basic Main Street USA. Or Main Street in Manayunk, for that matter. It's Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy. Penn's campus, and, increasingly, Drexel's and Temple's.
Mixed use is really the essence of an old city like Philadelphia. But it also answers very modern needs.
"Mixed-use development is the best land-use policy and planning tools that we have for sustainability," said Natalia Olson de Savyckyj, an international planning specialist with the architectural firm H2L2, and a member of both the Zoning Code and City Planning commissions.
