by KYW's Mike Dunn

A study to be made public next month on the future of the Delaware waterfront will call for building new city streets to the water's edge, and burying part of I-95.

The report by the urban design group Penn Praxis will be unveiled to the public on November 14th, but its director Harris Steinberg gave the city's Planning Commission an advance look:

"We have advice that 4,000 citizens have helped to give, which is to create a dense, walk able urban waterfront, by putting in a street grid (and) public access."

That means, extended the street grids of Philadelphia east to the river itself and creating new park space -- in his words, "bringing the neighborhood the river's edge." Steinberg also calls for rebuilding I-95 from Race Street to Washington underground, all of which he says would be 30-40 years out. Private developers at the Planning Commission meeting said the plan is "not grounded in reality."

The Planning Commission, meantime, approved (by a 3-2 vote) a set of measures needed for the proposed Cira Centre expansion in West Philadelphia. A City Council committee is reviewing that $800 million project, which includes two new skyscrapers near the old Post Office building.

For more information, go to planphilly.com.

(Photo: Brad Maule)