Wissahickon Gateway Plan has begun!
City Planning has launched the Wissahickon Gateway Multi-Modal Improvement Plan, putting recommendations from the Lower Northwest District Plan into action!
The Wissahickon Gateway is the area where the Schuylkill River and Wissahickon Creek meet. It connects the East Falls, Manayunk, and Wissahickon neighborhoods via Ridge Avenue and Main Street.
The Improvement Plan is a 12-month study. The result of the plan will be designs and an action plan for short- and long-term improvements in the area.
The goal is to make the Wissahickon Gateway a place where people can easily connect to buses, trains, sidewalks, and bike trails. This includes an expanded Wissahickon Transportation Center, new commercial and residential development, safer streets, and new waterfront trails.
The plan is the first step toward achieving those goals!
Michael Baker International is the consultant for this study, which is funded through a $100,000 Transportation and Community Development Initiative grant from DVRPC.
Want to get involved? There is a public meeting and a survey for the Wissahickon Gateway. To be notified about these meetings, sign-up for our emails, check back on the Phila2035 website, look at the City Planning calendar, or “like" us on Facebook.
From plan to action
The Wissahickon Gateway was a focus area in the Lower Northwest (LNW) District Plan (p. 34). Once realized, it will meet a number of the recommendations from the Plan, including:
LNW 3: Incentivize the location of small- to mid-size grocery stores within close proximity to the denser areas of Manayunk, Wissahickon, and East Falls (p. 48)
LNW 6: Use zoning to incentivize the development of single-family, multifamily, mix-income, and senior housing along commercial corridors, near public transit, in transitioning industrial areas, and on City-owned parcels (p. 50)
LNW 28: Complete the extension of the trail network and develop the Wissahickon Gateway Trail, among several others (p. 63)