Planning Beyond The Project

"Many community development corporations have built positive reputations among residents and business owners. If they can develop housing, community centers and local pride, why shouldn't they be able to plan for the future, too? In doing so, they could meet multiple goals: bring various neighborhood stakeholders together, develop resident leaders and gain a measure of control over local development.

In fact, many neighborhood-based organizations across the country have written or helped create plans with the support of residents, business owners and other neighborhood institutions. There’s more to the process than just getting a plan on paper, as a neighborhood must also convince local government to support a plan’s agenda, and then find the money to actually implement it."