Tag: Chester

Chester City creates another plan to revitalize its waterfront after decades of financial stress

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Economically depressed Chester City has approved yet another plan to revitalize its waterfront — an ambitious rework that could take as long as 15 years.



a store inside of a machine: Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack opened in Chester in 2007. It's one of the largest employers in the city.

© JOSE F. MORENO/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack opened in Chester in 2007. It’s one of the largest employers in the city.

“Chester is a tight-knit community full of character and heart,” Tom Shoemaker, president of the Riverfront Alliance of Delaware County (RADC), the group heading the master plan, said in a statement this week. “This plan outlines the strategy to safely connect the riverfront to the city and provide new opportunities for growth and development.”

The plan, based on input from city officials, businesses and residents, aims to improve how people get to Chester and navigate the city by allowing greater access to cyclists, pedestrians, and public transit.

Eventually, the RADC said, it expects to construct a marina, park, and multifamily

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NBBJ unveils waterfront-revitalizing master plan for Chester, Pennsylvania

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Less than 20 miles downriver from Philadelphia, where a multi-billion-dollar redevelopment of that city’s Delaware River waterfront is due to kick off next year, another historic Pennsylvania city is slated for a catalytic and long-overdue waterfront makeover that, in this instance, aims to spur economic development, enhance tourism opportunities, and bring together and celebrate a community that hasn’t always had it easy.

The city in question is Chester, the oldest in Pennsylvania. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is a small and once-prosperous city—declared a state-designated financially distressed municipality in 1995, the city is now under receivership—that’s experienced a decidedly disproportionate amount of turbulence over its very long history. Early 20th-century race riots, severe mid-century economic decline, rampant political corruption, and ongoing environmental degradation caused by a predominance of highly polluting industries, namely waste incinerators, located within city limits. Air pollution in Chester, and its impact on public health, has garnered it

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Developers unveil master plan for Chester waterfront | News

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CHESTER — Stakeholders are not willing to let history repeat itself when it comes to economic downturns and redevelopment on the West End waterfront. Public and private officials unveiled the initial findings of the Riverfront Alliance of Delaware County’s Chester Master Waterfront Plan last week with a private media event at the Philadelphia Union’s Subaru Park, followed by a public Zoom meeting.

Boston-based architectural firm NBBJ, in consultation with Chicago-based Hunden Straetgic Advisors, laid out the plan for the area bounded by Highland Avenue to Norris Street and the Delaware River to Route 291. Early actions will begin this month, with full build out estimated over 15 years.

With NBBJ’s contract let last October, the plans were crafted over the course of the COVID-19 lockdowns after late 2019 meeting with local residents, business owners and other stakeholders. Officials are confident the plan will not die out as did the prior

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