Update: Connections 2050 Plan Centers at the heart of its vision for the region’s future, using them as a foundational framework to guide regional growth, development, and transportation investment in smart, efficient way to make the most of existing assets. By linking land use and transportation planning, Plan Centers help direct resources to where they can have the greatest impact, cost-effectively. These are locations of local government, essential services, economic activity, and community life. The core variables that define Centers are transit access and development density. See Appendix B of Update Connections 2050 for more information on Centers typologies (www.dvrpc.org/plan). The six Center categories are defined as follows: 1. Regional Core—The central business district of the region, encompassing Greater Center City Philadelphia, University City, and downtown Camden. Geography is determined by the highest level of existing density. 2. City Centers—Dense, mixed-use neighborhoods or urban core cities with strong transit access and walkable main streets. These serve as models for urban development. 3. Town Centers—Compact, mixed-use boroughs or census-designated places with existing or historical transit service and a walkable main street. These Centers represent ideal development in a regional (non-urban) context. 4. Suburban Centers—Areas with higher density than their surroundings or clusters of jobs and commercial activity, but limited or no direct transit access. These Centers often face a jobs-housing imbalance and are key locations for multimodal and quality-of-life investments. 5. TOD Opportunity Centers—Areas with access to regional rail or strong transit service that could evolve into Town Centers through Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) strategies. These strategies may include increasing density, improving walkability, and enhancing multimodal connections. 6. Village Centers—Moderate-density, mixed-use clusters typically located in rural or agricultural settings. They often feature an identifiable downtown or main street and are important nodes of local cultural and economic activity.