Urban rail service in Philadelphia dates to 1832, when cars were pulled by horses. The colonial walking city planned around William Penn’s grid and public squares evolved to become a metropolis of city and suburbs that were built around rail service.
Even as the automobile took over early in the 20th century, Philadelphia’s rail system survived, and today in Greater Philadelphia—comprising nine counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey—more than 325 rail stations provide access to an extensive network of Amtrak, commuter rail, subways, light rail, and trolley services; bus routes number in the low triple digits.
With this legacy, the region became an early adopter in the modern, 21st-century movement espousing transit-oriented development (TOD). After nearly 20 years of experience, lessons are emerging in the region. Among them: successful places attract and sustain diversity both in land use and transportation. Although ambitious rail projects may generate excitement, incremental changes—and getting the unglamorous things, like clean sidewalks, right—can be just as important to success.
Big projects may be on the horizon in the region. Capping the rail yards around Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, Pennsylvania’s busiest rail station, is part of a 175-acre (30 ha) district planning process. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is analyzing alternatives to extend rail service five miles (8 km) to the suburban King of Prussia Mall, the second-largest shopping mall in the United States.
In the meantime, Philadelphia’s new mayor, Jim Kenney, seems poised to continue the transportation policies advanced during the administration of his predecessor, Michael Nutter. Kenney served on the Philadelphia City Council during the Nutter administration as the city adopted an ordinance supporting implementation of “complete streets”—streets safe for all users, including people driving, walking, bicycling, and taking mass transit. Under the Nutter administration, the city also revised zoning regulations to reduce parking requirements, expanded bicycle lanes to 426 miles (686 km), and launched the city’s Indego bike sharing program with 60 stations and 600 bikes.
Kenney, known for his ire at construction zones that obstruct sidewalks, announced in early February, just weeks into office, that he would be naming the city’s first “commissioner of complete streets” to further this evolution.
Center City: Philadelphia’s Downtown
Increased diversity is both a cause and an effect of Center City’s transformation from a 9-to-5 commercial district losing out to suburban office parks to the dynamic commercial, cultural, and residential hub it is today. The density and diversity of land uses support and depend on diversity in transportation modes and on a mix of people driving, walking, bicycling, and taking transit.
An instigating presence during Center City’s transformation, the Center City District (CCD)—Philadelphia’s downtown business improvement district—began its work 25 years ago with a narrow agenda: transform Center City’s reputation from that of a dirty and dangerous place to a place that is clean and safe. The humble sidewalk was its first target: with funding from a real estate surcharge on assessed property values, CCD hired 50 sidewalk cleaners and 42 safety ambassadors who work closely with the Philadelphia police.
As Center City reinvented itself, CCD expanded its efforts more deeply into the public realm, including into rail stations and parks. In 2007, CCD won cleaning contracts for Center City’s two regional rail stations and the 3.5 miles (6 km) of underground transit concourse space, extending its welcome mat to greet tourists and the 70 percent of workers who arrive at their jobs by transit.
For Paul R. Levy, CCD president and chief executive officer, the watershed event revealing Center City’s clean break from the old automobile-oriented model was development of Comcast Center. A 2009 ULI Award for Excellence winner, the 58-story tower opened in 2008 with a new entrance to the Suburban Station regional rail hub but only 87 spaces in its parking garage. According to Levy, Comcast Center proved to the local market that a marquee building could be transit dependent and successful.
The pattern continues with the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center, soon to take over as Philadelphia’s tallest building at 59 stories. Under construction on a former parking lot, the mixed-use building of office, media/studio, hotel, and retail space includes a new connection to the transit concourse, but the 70-space underground garage provides no net gain in parking.
A small but important move came in 2002 when CCD became the officially designated transportation management association (TMA) for downtown Philadelphia. TMAs help large employment centers, such as suburban office parks, provide commuters with transportation alternatives. At the time, Pennsylvania funded suburban TMAs, but CCD successfully argued that as the region’s largest employment center—and a transit-rich one at that—Center City should also be eligible for government support. “The TMA fits into CCD’s larger mission of advancing the long-term competitiveness of the region by promoting accessibility and improving alternatives for commuters,” says Levy.
Being the TMA bolsters CCD as it tracks changes in travel. Its security cameras can produce nearly real-time pedestrian counts, which Levy calls “invaluable to our success attracting national retailers and businesses.” CCD also conducts annual bicycle counts and analyzes data from Indego.
The combination of TMA and business improvement district—with its operating and management authority—has meant that CCD is also well positioned to partner with the transportation agencies on capital projects. Since 1997, CCD has invested $132 million in capital projects, leveraging federal, state, city, and foundation funding for everything from street lighting to major park improvements. CCD and SEPTA together designed a comprehensive update of Center City’s directional signs guiding visitors and tourists.
CCD’s biggest capital improvement project to date is Dilworth Park, which opened in 2014. Located adjacent to City Hall, the park has a lush green lawn and an interactive fountain. Swooping glass entryways marked by SEPTA’s lollipop-shaped sign in its signature color, Center City green, signal that this project is also very much focused on transit. With CCD, foundation, state, city, and federal funding, including a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant, the $60 million project revamped a small, forbidding plaza that looked down into a multilevel transit concourse. Improved access to the subway and trolley lines and the addition of the station’s first elevators created a truly accessible and welcoming transit gateway.
CCD is uniquely positioned to detect emerging changes in travel, including the latest wheeled vehicle competing for space—strollers. “Parents are walking eight, ten blocks or more to bring their children to Sister Cities Park,” Levy says of the CCD’s child-centered park in Logan Square, five blocks northwest of City Hall. Dilworth Park’s dual role as park and transit gateway has made it a gathering place for people of all ages and from across the city. Although children and strollers add another layer of complexity to the streets and to transit, Levy says, “they are an indicator of CCD’s and Center City’s success building a healthy place to live, work, and play.”
Levy has advice for those in the midst of their city’s or suburb’s transition from a car-oriented past to a future defined by an energetic, eclectic, and constantly shifting mix of people driving, walking, bicycling, and taking transit. “Have a little patience,” he says. “Rebalancing the streets is not easy, but it is very important.”
From Center to Neighborhoods
The call to revitalize the smaller neighborhoods outside Center City stands out in the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s “Roadmap for Growth” report, developed during 2015. Although the downtown Philadelphia economy is doing very well, notes Joe Grace, the chamber’s vice president of state and local advocacy, 74 percent of Philadelphia’s businesses and 56 percent of its jobs are outside Center City. Renewed emphasis on neighborhood commercial corridors—local main streets that support small businesses, restaurants, and shops—form the backbone of the chamber’s recommendations.
The call to shift attention to neighborhood commercial corridors emerged directly—and spontaneously—from community meetings the chamber held across the city. “We heard it again and again and again. These are the places people live and shop, and where they would like to work,” says Grace. The chamber agrees that focusing on these corridors will help expand the economy, stabilize neighborhoods, alleviate poverty, and improve the quality of life.
Neighborhood commercial corridors also made a notable appearance in Mayor Kenney’s inaugural address this January. Just weeks into the new administration, city director of commerce Harold T. Epps had already begun touring these neighborhood main streets, meeting with local business and civic leaders. “When the city makes incremental investments in physical improvements and support for businesses, it sparks neighborhood renewal and transformation,” Epps says.
The mayor’s new complete streets commissioner also could be helpful. “What we heard when we talked to people is that they want better transit access and increased public safety in their commercial corridors,” says Kate Hagedorn, the chamber’s manager for policy communications. “[Having] places that are easy to access and where people feel comfortable and safe gets to the heart of complete streets for everyone, whether driving, taking a trolley, or walking.”
Government assistance is important, but so is support from the real estate community, including for business improvement districts. Grace and Hagedorn both note that people want to see more diverse offerings on their main streets, but they need help. They need advice on how to facilitate the right kinds of businesses, Grace and Hagedorn say.
Although these neighborhood commercial corridors are not typically thought of as TOD, the ingredients for success—attracting a mix of uses, improving transit access, and making it safer for people driving, walking, and bicycling—are familiar.
Into the Region
Suburban Philadelphia’s embrace of modern TOD began in the early 2000s. There was a “void in planning around transit stations,” recalls Karin Morris, associate director of planning for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), whose task it was to help suburban communities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey coordinate land use and transportation planning. “Not all of our transit agencies were positioned to take the lead.”
The DVRPC started with a straightforward inventory of stations and their development potential. It held TOD marketplaces providing tours of development sites and worked with municipalities to develop zoning ordinances supporting transit.
Fifteen years later, “TOD is a much easier sell,” says Morris. Thirty-six municipalities now provide for TOD in their zoning ordinances. But, Morris notes, “we have also learned that a TOD overlay in a zoning code is only one step. District planning for the community and sustained political support to weather setbacks such as the recession have also proved necessary.” In addition, DVRPC, like CCD, takes tracking pedestrian and bicycle traffic seriously and makes regular counts publicly available.
Wayne Junction in Nicetown, a neighborhood in north Philadelphia, exemplifies the new TOD regimen. While SEPTA prepared to invest $24 million to update the rail station dating back to 1901, the city and neighborhood adopted a TOD district plan, revised the zoning to allow denser development, designated a historic district to help raise funds to restore 17 historic industrial buildings (work now underway), leveraged federal money to demolish two dangerous industrial buildings, and financed a mixed-use project that included affordable housing.
“Show Me a Project”
The DVRPC’s Office of Smart Growth recently added a unique and powerful tool designed specifically for when local officials, residents, and developers say, “Show me a project nearby that we can look at,” Svekla notes.
This tool, the Smart Growth Project Database, includes 186 Philadelphia-area real estate projects near transit. Publicly accessible through an interactive map (at dvrpc.org/webmaps/SGPD), the database emphasizes projects built in the past ten years in suburban communities and outlying Philadelphia neighborhoods. For each project, the database lists its developer, status, transit line or lines, and station, plus provides a brief description, a photo, and a link to the project’s website.
The database also allows for the examination of regional trends. Even in suburban locations, “much of the development we see near transit is about incrementally changing surrounding land uses,” says Andrew Svekla, senior planning and design analyst for DVRPC’s Office of Smart Growth. “It’s infill or redevelopment projects, including multifamily housing and high-end apartments,” Svekla says.
Opportunities for large-scale, master-planned developments occasionally appear. Rivergate, the first phase of the Bordentown Waterfront transit village in Bordentown Township, New Jersey, opened in 2014, consisting of 159 luxury rental housing units. At buildout, plans include a new station on New Jersey Transit’s light-rail River Line to support seven neighborhoods and 685 residences.
But much of the region’s new development near transit is like the revitalization in Lansdale, a borough 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Philadelphia. The area defined by Lansdale’s original street grid that surrounds the SEPTA regional rail station is attracting residential infill development. Projects such as Turbo Lofts and Silk Factory Lofts converted former hosiery factories into condominiums and apartments. Smaller projects of 20 to 30 townhouses for sale, like those of WB Homes, add to the downtown population.
Suburban and urban places able to recapture or invent a mixed-use and walkable character are doing especially well. But the longstanding TOD assumption that being near rail transit is all about commuting no longer dominates. “People are attracted by the amenities of walkable mixed-use places,” says Svekla. “They want to make some trips without a car, even if it’s not their work trips.”
For Greater Philadelphia, from Center City to urban neighborhoods to the outer boroughs and townships, a rail station alone is not the answer to development challenges. Instead, mass transit is part of the crucial diversity of both development and transportation that leads to success.
Sarah Jo Peterson is principal at Maryland-based 23 Urban Strategies, which provides transportation and land use consulting services.
