October 27, 2008

Grants seek to get Philadelphians down to the river

Diane Mastrull
Inquirer Staff Writer 

Despite an economic crisis that has left funding wells as dry as Vegas in July, $1 million in grants will flow today to 13 projects in Philadelphia aimed at encouraging more public access to two rivers long monopolized by private industry - the Schuylkill and the Delaware.

If the hoped-for traffic materializes, so, too, should economic development along the banks of the waterways and in adjacent communities hoping for revitalization, planning and investment experts said. 
"We think the riverfronts are the city's most significant redevelopment assets," said Shawn McCaney, program officer for William Penn Foundation, which is funding the grants. "The right set of public amenities will help reinforce the waterfronts as desirable places to develop."
The grants will be administered by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission under its new, aptly named stimulus program - "Take Me to the River."
The grants will support a variety of trail, park and entertainment initiatives designed to heighten the public's relationship with the rivers - "rather than have the Wal-Mart parking lot be the main public access," said Karin Morris, the DVRPC's smart-growth manager.
Though not by design, the scoring system resulted in the grants being almost evenly divided between both rivers - seven for the Schuylkill; six for the Delaware.
The smallest allotment, $25,000, will go to the New Kensington Development Corp. to help establish an eight-week summer concert series for two years at Penn Treaty Park, a non-industrial oasis along the Delaware where Mayor Nutter will join DVRPC officials and grant recipients today for a 10 a.m. news conference.
The largest grant, $125,000, will be picked up by East Falls Development Corp. for renovations to the long-vacant Bathey House on the Schuylkill's edge at the gateway to the East Falls business district. Plans include a restaurant, bathrooms, a bike-rental outlet, and kiosks dispensing information about the Schuylkill River Trail and area businesses.
The DVRPC received 46 applications.
In most, if not all, of the 13 projects selected, the grants will not cover the entire cost but will fill "critical gaps in the funding stream," Morris said. Like land-preservation deals these dollar-tight days, capital projects by nonprofits are relying on multiple funding sources.
For instance, the Schuylkill River Development Corp. plans to convert a tract of riverfront land between 34th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue, where DuPont Chemicals used to test paint, into a 3,300-foot-long stretch of the Schuylkill River Trail. Lane Fike, director of capital projects for the development group, estimates the total price tag at $3 million. Its grant from William Penn: $100,000.
Fike's group also qualified for another William Penn assist, $50,000, to help fund a feasibility study for a pedestrian bridge linking its planned DuPont Crescent Greenway on the east side of the river with the west bank and the horticultural gem there - Bartram's Garden, the oldest surviving botanic garden in the country.
Adjacent to the gardens are 28 acres owned by developer John Westrum. They form a former industrial site where Westrum envisions "a large-scale mixed-use community" - the details of which are still being worked out. That the Schuylkill River Trail is inching ever closer to that parcel, thanks in part to the new grant program, has Westrum enthusiastic that his project will get built eventually - despite the current chill on new development.
"We're bullish on rivers and the redevelopment of the rivers," he said.
For good reason, said Sarah Thorp, executive director of Delaware River City Corp., a nonprofit in line for three grants for a combined $199,000. Two of them, totaling $124,000, will be used to create the 64th park in the Fairmount Park System - and the first along the city's Delaware waterfront in at least a decade, according to Thorp.
Without more public greenways, she said, the city's redevelopment ambitions for its waterfronts would be limited.
"The work that we're doing is providing green infrastructure, which is going to help the mayor reach his goal of bringing new residents and jobs to the city," Thorp said.
A mix of public and private waterfront space is an important component of any healthy urban area, said William Penn's McCaney.
"Most competitive cities of the world have figured out how to balance public access and redevelopment along their waterfronts," he said.