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Octavia Howell, formerly of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, records residents input on the Lower Northwest District Plan. (Matthew Grady/WHYY)
City Hall wants Philadelphians to play a bigger role in shaping neighborhood growth.
Last week, Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration announced residents will decide how to spend $1 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for capital investments through the city’s first participatory planning process. The residents selected to participate in that effort will form a new city democratic body of sorts called the Re-Imagine Philadelphia Steering Committee.
After three months spent on the participatory planning initiative, the committee will go on for another year with its second and perhaps more enduring legacy: advising the Philadelphia City Planning Commission on its next citywide comprehensive plan.