Challenge

Claymont is a suburb located along the historic Philadelphia Pike between Wilmington, Delaware, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The area’s most recent redevelopment plan was prepared over 20 years ago and needed to be updated to reflect the community’s current needs. Community members had ideas for incorporating land use and transportation innovations and were looking to turn that vision into a reality.

Solution

Kittelson led a team to develop the Claymont Area Master Plan, a comprehensive land use and transportation plan for the community. The team completed a visioning effort with strong participation from the public, WILMAPCO, New Castle County, DelDOT, and the Claymont Renaissance Development Corporation. Together, these entities evaluated a series of land use and transportation scenarios for compliance with the County’s Unified Development Code.

The team then refined these scenarios through a public process and evaluated them against performance measures based on community input. Kittelson’s transportation scenario development focused heavily on Philadelphia Pike, as it is key transportation corridor through the study area, and included context-based design improvements like spot treatments at intersections, an extension of the existing road diet section on Philadelphia Pike, and a new roundabout at Governor Printz Boulevard. Transportation recommendations included traffic-calming and walking and biking improvements along key connector streets within Claymont.

Interactive public engagement was a hallmark of the project, with a series of advisory committee meetings and public workshops that allowed the project team to refine and recommend alternatives. The community is continuing dialogue around the types of improvements needed along Philadelphia Pike to address identified transportation safety needs.