As Samantha Petty considered the Planning Commission’s proposals for her community, she experienced a wave of déjà vu.

Standing in the hallway of West Philadelphia High School, at the last public outreach meeting about proposed policies for the “West District” — one of 18 city subsections to undergo the comprehensive planning process begun six years ago — the West Philadelphia mother flashed back to her work as an urban planner in Portland, Oregon circa 2011.

There, she helped craft a bicycle infrastructure program meant to bring greater safety to one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares. But the miniscule construction project provoked backlash from the local African-American community, which saw it as a manifestation of gentrification.

West District’s Mantua Greenway, which will connect the low-income neighborhood to the Schuylkill River Trail by bike and foot, reminded her discomfitingly of hard lessons learned on the West Coast.

Petty rushed off to find Brian Wenrich, the city planner for West Philadelphia.

Mapping The City’s Future?

The West District is one of the final parts of the city’s comprehensive plan, known as Philadelphia 2035, a legacy of Mayor Michael Nutter’s effort to give direction to Philadelphia’s development and growth. For decades, the Planning Commission, which is staffed by dozens of zoning and land-use experts, had operated in an ad hoc fashion dictated by the political moment. The zoning code of 2012 and the new comprehensive plan, both of which hadn’t been updated since the mid-20th century, are meant to give policymakers a clear and rules-based guide for the city’s future.

The engagement process around the district plans, consisting of online feedback and three public meetings, is meant to give neighborhood residents a voice in how the city allocates attention and resources. The planning process also offers an opportunity to give input on how neighborhood zoning maps, which largely dictate what can and can’t be built on a given city block, could be rewritten. It is meant to be an empowering process.

But the district planning process can also be confusing for participants and grueling for planners. For many attendees, the Planning Commission’s civic engagement sessions are the only time where city representatives gather residents and solicit feedback on anything. The planners are then bombarded with questions about issues that they have no control over, like the diversity requirements of the Rebuild initiative.

Most attendees are civil and excited to participate in a vision of their future community, but some treat city workers with suspicion and hostility. At the final meeting, one man stormed out of the introductory presentation, yelling that the rest of the attendees were being played for dupes. Later, an irate woman had to be escorted out by security.

But even when the district planning process runs smoothly, there is still a tension between the stated goals and the reality of how change occurs in Philadelphia.

The Planning Commission ultimately falls under the purview of the mayoral administration, which can unilaterally act on some of the commission’s capital spending recommendations, such as adding light fixtures to a neighborhood street. But it’s the district City Council members that control zoning and, to a large extent, other major policy decisions like land sales and the placement of bike lanes.

That often isn’t clear to the average resident.

“Welcome to Philadelphia, where councilmanic prerogative rules,” said John Landis, professor of city planning with the University of Pennsylvania. The Planning Commission’s district plans can provide a roadmap, but it’s up to the council members representing those areas to drive the changes, as they have final say over land use and zoning in their districts.

“[District plans] provide an additional channel through which groups can make their aspirations known,” said Landis. “How that information is acted upon isn’t clear, and that can be frustrating. People often participate with the assumption that the distribution of funds, or other things they want, is going to change. No one is promising that.”

For example, Petty, the former Portland city planner, proposed moving vacant land around the forthcoming Mantua Greenway into the city’s land bank, which would theoretically give the public a say over how city-owned land is used by the subsequent purchasers.