Bill would advance waterfront plan

City Councilman Frank DiCicco yesterday set in motion a master plan for the Delaware River waterfront with a bill to create a new zoning district.

DiCicco's bill follows Mayor Nutter's announcement this week that the city would commit $2 million to plan a recreation trail, a new park at Pier 11, and a formal master plan for the seven miles of riverfront between Oregon and Allegheny Avenues.

The legislation, introduced yesterday at City Council's regular meeting, is meant to follow the recommendations of last year's Action Plan for the Central Delaware. Penn Praxis, an arm of the design school of the University of Pennsylvania, developed that plan after a series of community workshops. Elements include extending the street grid to the waterfront, which some developers have resisted.

DiCicco hopes to pass the legislation by summer break in June, a spokesman said.

Also yesterday, Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced a bill that would tie the city's 10-year tax abatements to environmentally friendly building standards.

The higher a project's "green" rating, the greater its tax abatement would be. The standard would be the same as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design's national measure of a building's energy efficiency and use of green building materials.

Such incentives would also create the kind of green jobs that the administrations in both Philadelphia and Washington have been pushing, Jones said.