Infill Development Case Study Neighborhoods in Bloom Program, Richmond, Virginia
Just before the year 2000, the City of Richmond, Virginia, launched Neighborhoods in Bloom (NIB), an equitable effort to distribute Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds in conjunction with capital improvement and other various public and private funds to seven targeted neighborhoods. Through the NIB Plan, the City hoped to catalyze “self-sustaining, private-market activity.” A retrospective analysis was conducted by the Community Affairs Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 2005 to understand the implications and results of the NIB Plan. As a supplementary and coordinated effort, the local Community Development Corporation (CDC) targeted strategic investment subsidies into the neighborhoods. Similarly, the Richmond office of LISC also played a significant role in transforming the neighborhoods through coordinated investment. The 2005 report goes on to say that “The quantitative and qualitative analyses show that the Richmond NIB program and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) investments produced impressive direct outcomes in the targeted areas.” The decision to ultimately develop and deploy a concentration of resources opposed to a thin blanket across all qualified areas of the City was supported by the acting City Manager and several council representatives. To identify the selected neighborhoods, the City took a quantitative and community-based approach by identifying capacity for revitalization, market factors, and neighborhood trends in each potential neighborhood, ultimately deciding on the seven selected. Ultimately, once neighborhoods were defined and selected, existing plans for the area were analyzed and two-year work plans and budgets were developed through the NIB Plan. Each work plan identified buildings to be acquired, rehabilitated, or demolished and illustrated where new housing was to be developed. Allocation of the CDBG funds supported acquisition, demolition, new construction, and rehabilitation of dilapidated housing, as well as down payment assistance. Capital improvement projects included funding for streetlights, alleys, sidewalks, and street improvements throughout each neighborhood. Other public sector initiatives that supported infill development included: increased code enforcement, tax-delinquent sales and vacant property disposition, an expedited historic property review process, and replacement housing assistance.
Economic Strategies | 189
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator