Wednesday, July 23, 2025

What is the Community First Plan?

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Introducing the Community First Plan

We’re excited to embark on our Community First Plan—a vision and strategy to make sure the Rail Park’s growth uplifts everyone, starting with the neighborhoods next door.

This plan centers the voices of residents, local leaders, and community organizations to guide how the park evolves and make sure the Rail Park reflects the community, responds to real needs, and becomes a place where public space results in public good.

From affordable housing to cultural programming, job opportunities to accessibility, we want to explore what our communities need and how we can support those goals.

Learn more about why we're thinking about this!

Let’s Grow Something Great, Together

We believe that the future of the Rail Park should be co-created with our community. That’s why we’re inviting YOU to help shape the Community First Plan.

Explore the Community First Zine

Our Community First Zine is a hands-on, interactive guide to the ideas shaping the future of the Rail Park. It breaks down key topics like housing, economic opportunity, arts & culture, and the environment in a way that’s easy to engage with.

Inside, you’ll find activities, prompts, and questions designed to help you reflect on your neighborhood and share what matters most to you. The zine is one of the main tools we’ve used to gather community input and spark meaningful conversations.

Take a look, share with friends, and share your thoughts with us.

Here's the zine!

Explore the Community Engagement Process

Over the past several months, we’ve been meeting with residents, community groups, artists, and small businesses to help shape the Community First Plan. Through focus groups, surveys, office hours, and community events, we’ve gathered feedback on housing, economic opportunity, arts & culture, and the environment.

Across neighborhoods, residents shared concerns about affordability, displacement, cleanliness, green space, and preserving neighborhood culture, while also sharing ideas for a more connected, equitable future.

Explore some of the key findings and learn what we’ve heard from the community so far.

Here are the findings!

Community Advisory Committee (CAC) Members

Thank you to the Community Advisory Committee members who have generously shared their time, insight, and lived experience to help guide and shape this work:

Blake Carroll, Vivian Chang, John Chin, Akeem Dixon, Melissa Fogg, KG Gormley, Molly Hartman, Daren Jin, Alain Joinville, Alli Lau, Kelly Lawler, Reverend Wayne Lee, Diana Lind, Lauren Lowe, Yvonne Lung, Miles Owen, Gloria Page, Jawad Pullin, Cam Pursel, Tati Rudolph, Patrick Sherlock, Mark Squilla, Kira Strong, Shalimar Thomas, Andy Toy, Ngan Tran, Cade Underwood, Rachael Viscidy, Jada Walton, Sophia Wan, Rayshawn Johnson

Upcoming Events

RCO Tour

We’re speaking at upcoming Registered Community Organization (RCO) meetings to share what we’ve heard from the community so far and discuss the next steps in the Community First planning process. This page will continue to be updated as additional meeting dates are confirmed.

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Neighbors Across Market | July 16th

Past Events

May 5th | Community Advisory Committee Spring Report-Out

We welcomed Community Advisory Committee members to our new office space for a report out on the Community First Plan.

The meeting highlighted initial community engagement findings, key priorities raised by residents, updates from partner organizations, and next steps as we move toward developing the final plan recommendations.

September–November 2025 | Various Community Meetings

We presented at:

Callowhill Neighborhood Association | Oct 13th
Philadelphia Chinatown Community Development Corporation | Oct 14th
Neighborhoods Across Market | Oct 16th
Spring Garden Civic Association | Oct 21st
Fairmount Civic Association | Oct 30th
Logan Square Neighborhood Association | Nov 11th
Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association | Nov 12th
14th Community Organization | Dec 4th

We met with Registered Community Organizations (RCOs) across Philadelphia to share information about the Community First Plan and why it is needed.

During these meetings, we introduced the overall planning process and discussed how community input will guide the work ahead. We also shared information about upcoming focus groups and other opportunities for engagement.

Couldn't join us? View the presentation

September 17th | Community Advisory Committee Kick-Off

Our Community Advisory Committee has helped guide this work.

We held our kick-off meeting at the Crane to introduce the committee to the overall process and receive their feedback on the preliminary work and research.

August 14 at Design Advocacy Group | Public Space: Public Good

Our friends from 11th Street Bridge Park and the High Line Network joined us and discussed their efforts and experiences in equitable development so that we can see what strategies have worked in other cities and determine what tools might work in Philadelphia.