A Civic Vision
The Power of Planning Cities are organic entities that grow and change over time, and sound
not adhere to sound principles for planning, land use, transportation
urban planning and design help them evolve in beneficial ways that
and quality of life. As a result, the quality of the built environment
create a framework for our lives. They are shifting landscapes.
has been compromised.
Visionary plans influence urban-development practices for decades and even centuries; perhaps the most notable example of this in the
The city was not always characterized by a haphazard development
United States is Daniel Burnham’s plan for Chicago in 1909, which
style. In fact, Philadelphia began with a plan: William Penn’s plan for
established the template that has guided subsequent growth. The
the city, a holy experiment that was also a real-estate deal. The plan,
most revered cities around the world still adhere to elements of their
which Penn designed with his surveyor, Thomas Holme, was first
hallmark plans, from the plan of Pierre L’Enfant in Washington to
published in 1683. It laid out development parcels and public squares
that of Baron Haussmann in Paris. Quality urban design is attuned to
along a network of parallel streets, reflecting the planners’ efforts to
the rhythm of the era, but it also stands the test of time. It informs
resolve the tension between religious freedom and aristocratic land
development, makes a city more memorable and can even help us
ownership, community interaction and private property. This plan
feel safe in our neighborhoods. By giving sites a feeling of permanence,
allowed for growth within a formal framework, and economic
sound city planning allows buildings and sites to be adapted over time
realities led to the speedy filling in of Penn’s blocks with dense,
without losing their essential character.
mixed-use neighborhoods. Theirs was a prescient template for growth that survives to this day.
Successful planning requires that we balance the interests of the public and private sectors, but the process of creating a successful
Penn’s clear delineation of development parcels, a street network
plan also teaches us that these interests are intertwined. Public policy
and open space has served the city as a template for 325 years of
that is written to create and preserve quality urban development will
growth. Today, in the absence of comprehensive planning, this
benefit private-sector interests by stimulating demand. However,
growth has been implemented mainly at the hands of private
the decline of both public and private investment in recent decades
developers and property owners. What follows is a brief history
shows that Philadelphia’s land-use policies are out of date with
of city planning in Philadelphia and the central Delaware.
current development pressures, allowing for development that does
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As planning historian John Gallery notes, the city began as Penn’s vision, yet it is now “the story of the collective vision of many men and women—civic leaders and professional planners . . . [created] to express their vision of a city both beautiful and practical.”