Overview of the Neighborhood Planning Process
- Policy Framework
- Why Neighborhood Planning?
- What will a Neighborhood Plan do for my Neighborhood?
- How Does My Neighborhood go through the Process?
- Who is the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership and what is its Role?
- What is the Neighborhood's Role?
- What is the Role of City Staff?
- What are the Adoption Procedures for the Plan and what Status will the Plan have
I. Policy Framework
The City of Tallahassee adopted a Neighborhood Strategic Plan in 1996, which directed the City to develop and adopt a neighborhood planning process. The Strategic Plan also states that the neighborhood planning process should include principles and criteria to address the following:
- Boundary setting (i.e., establishing the boundaries for the neighborhood to be studied);
- Topics to be covered in a neighborhood plan;
- Assessing neighborhood conditions and data;
- A public participation plan;
- Developing neighborhood priorities, within the context of the adopted Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan;
- Setting goals;
- Identifying costs and benefits;
- Choosing implementation strategies such as design guidelines, overlay and special assessment and taxing districts; and
- Adoption procedures
The Strategic Plan also states that a general methodology to prioritize (select) neighborhoods for the neighborhood planning process should be developed.
II. Why Neighborhood Planning?
Neighborhoods are the foundation on which cities are built. The focus of the Neighborhood Renaissance Program is to recognize the importance of each neighborhood, the need to strengthen and protect neighborhoods, and to provide services and opportunities that promote the stability and health of these areas.
The neighborhood planning process puts neighborhood residents in the driver's seat through active participation in the process of identifying their neighborhood's needs, problems and solutions to these problems, as well as helping to implement accepted solutions. It is important that the citizens who will be impacted the most by the planning process be actively involved in the process. The process allows neighborhood residents to come together with business owners, education and financial institutions, not-for-profits, civic groups, faith-based organizations, and government to develop a plan that will guide the future development of their neighborhoods, identify and prioritize neighborhood issues, propose potential solutions to neighborhood problems, and guide the expenditure of public funds.
Neighborhood planning also adds another level of planning to the City's multi-level planning program. However, neighborhood planning differs from the other levels of planning conducted by the City, in that the geographic area of concern is limited to a single neighborhood or, at the most, a combination of two neighborhoods. In some ways neighborhood planning will be a refinement of the other levels of planning conducted by the City. It is also at this level of planning that neighborhood residents can become intimately involved in the City's planning process and shape the future of their neighborhoods and ultimately the community.
III. What will a Neighborhood Plan do for my Neighborhood?
A neighborhood plan is the result of a collaborative planning process conducted by residents, businesses, the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership, neighborhood associations, and the broader Tallahassee community. The plan will be developed by general consensus and, as such, represents the "agreed upon" future direction for the neighborhood.
The process of developing a neighborhood plan builds neighborhood spirit, and a neighborhood plan will be advantageous to a neighborhood in a number of ways. An adopted neighborhood plan will:
- Describe clearly what the neighborhood wants to accomplish;
- Provide guidance for land use and zoning decisions in and adjacent to the neighborhood;
- Give direction to the City and the County regarding the programs, services and capital improvements needed for the neighborhood;
- Help guide and prioritize the Partnership expenditures of public funds in the neighborhood;
- Provide a clear picture to residents, businesses, and developers of the types of businesses and development desired by the neighborhood;
- Identify to the School Board the public education issues with which the community is most concerned, and recommendations to address those issues;
- Identify for the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership opportunities for partnering with a local neighborhood to effectuate neighborhood revitalization while fulfilling the purpose and mission of that organization; and
- Identify how the neighborhood will protect its assets and resources.
Funding for the implementation of a neighborhood plan is not guaranteed. However, the governments (City and County) and members of the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership will use Neighborhood Renaissance Plans as an advisory guide to allocate or budget funds for neighborhoods by integrating neighborhood needs in to their budget process.
IV. How Does My Neighborhood go through the Process?
Annually, an open competitive process will be used to select the next neighborhood to go through the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Program. To be considered for selection, an applicant neighborhood must submit a completed Community Neighborhood Renaissance application to the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department. The application will ask applicants to provide information about their neighborhood, such as the level of organization existing in the neighborhood, the number/percentage of neighborhood residents and businesses desiring a neighborhood plan, and previous community-building initiatives undertaken by the neighborhood. Applications will be available from the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department, located on the 3rd floor, Frenchtown Renaissance Center, 435 North Macomb Street, Tallahassee, Florida.
A selection committee made up of representatives from the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership and other community stakeholder groups will review and rank the applications received and forward a recommendation to the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership Board. The Partnership Board will review the selection committee's recommendation(s) and make the final selection, which the Board will submit to the Tallahassee City Commission for endorsement.
Given the resources committed to neighborhood planning, at this time, no more than one neighborhood will be selected per year. Preference will be given to neighborhoods located in the Southern Strategy Area, Central City and the Community Redevelopment Area. Neighborhoods located wholly or partially within these areas can apply for selection individually or in collaboration with an adjacent neighborhood that has similar neighborhood issues and concerns. Eligible sponsoring applicants for the Neighborhood Renaissance Program are registered neighborhood associations and/or qualified community-based non-profit organizations (See appendix I for further definition of a qulified community based non-profit organization).
V. Who is the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership and what is its Role?
The Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership is a non-profit organization made up of representatives from local governments (city and county), public educational institutions, the private sector, not-for-profit organizations, and faith-based organizations within Leon County. These organizations share a common interest in the preservation, revitalization and stabilization of the neighborhoods within our community. The Partnership facilitates their participation, and that of the broader Tallahassee-Leon County community, in the revitalization of the City's neighborhoods.
Members of the Partnership are divided into two groups: Institutional Partners (banks, educational institutions, not-for-profit organizations, private sector companies) and Covenant Partners (churches and faith-based organizations). Covenant partners involve the pairing of diverse faith-based groups to work together as partners in the neighborhood renaissance process. For example, a church with a predominately black congregation might be paired with a predominantly white congregation to assist in the revitalization of a neighborhood. It is important to note that the pairing of Covenant Partners is not limited to those of differing ethnic or racial congregations. Instead, the pairing of congregations will ultimately depend upon the needs of the neighborhood and the ability of the Covenant Partners to meet those needs.
The members of the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership bring to the neighborhood revitalization process human resources as well as material and financial resources. Full Institutional Partners contribute financially to the neighborhood revitalization process ($10,000 each year for 5 years). It is hoped that some of the programs and resources currently provided by these organizations and institutions can be directed or re-directed to help address some of the needs identified in the neighborhoods going through the renaissance program.
The professional and technical expertise of the Partnership will be called upon to assist neighborhoods as they go through the planning process, beginning with the neighborhood selection and assessment phase and continuing to the plan development and implementation phase. Members of the Partnership will serve on the neighborhood planning teams, helping neighborhoods to establish short and long-term goals, as well as coming up with implementation strategies to address the identified problems and concerns of the neighborhood. It is likely that the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership will partner with neighborhoods to implement certian programs and services. In addition, the expertise of the Partners will be used to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of neighborhood plans.
VI. What is the Neighborhood's Role?
The neighborhood, through its neighborhood association or its sponsoring qualified community-based non-profit organization, must provide the vision and the leadership for the Neighborhood Renaissance Program. Neighborhoods working on a plan are expected to:
- Select a Neighborhood Steering Committee that is representative of the neighborhood. The neighborhood steering committee will be the hub of the planning team that will lead the neighborhood through the planning process;
- Secure a regular meeting place;
- Establish meeting and workshop agendas in consultation with the neighborhood planner and the other players in the neighborhood planning process;
- Provide direction for the development of the plan's goals, objectives and implementation strategies;
- Take an active role in the implementation of the plan by identifying the actions that the neighborhood can do on its own, as well as those activities that they can do with help from others; and
- Assist with any update of the plan.
VII. What is the Role of City Staff?
The lead City departments in the Neighborhood Renaissance Program are the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department and the Neighborhood and Community Services Department. In Phase I of the neighborhood planning process, City staff will assist in neighborhood selection and assessment. In Phase II, City staff will provide technical support services to the neighborhood planning team to help develop the neighborhood renaissance plan. City staff can assist the neighborhood planning team by providing:
- Demographic, land use and zoning data;
- Research and analysis;
- Maps;
- Field data;
- Tools to identify, clarify and prioritize issues;
- Methods to determine goals, objectives and implementation strategies;
- Coordination with other City departments and services;
- Assistance with plan implementation; and
- Assistance in updating the adopted plan.
The assigned neighborhood planner will draft the neighborhood plan based on the recommendations of the neighborhood planning team.
VIII. What are the Adoption Procedures for the Plan and what Status will the Plan have?
Once completed and approved by the neighborhood, a preliminary draft of the neighborhood renaissance plan should be transmitted to the City of Tallahassee, Leon County, members of the Community Neighborhood Renaissance Partnership and other interested parties for review and comments. The neighborhood will also seek to make presentations to various community groups on the content of the plan in order to gain their support of the plan.
The neighborhood planning team will review the comments received from the above entities, and the neighborhood steering committee may recommend changes to the preliminary plan, as the neighborhood deems appropriate, based on the comments received. Neighborhoods are encouraged to resolve areas of conflict that may come up during the review of the preliminary plan. Due to the fact that representatives from all of the above-mentioned entities will be involved in the development of the neighborhood renaissance plan, areas of conflict during the formal review by these entities should be minimal.
Once the neighborhood plan has been finalized, the neighborhood association or the qualified sponsoring community-based non-profit organization will adopt the final plan and forward it to the City, the County, and members of the Partnership for their adoption and/or endorsement. An adopted neighborhood renaissance plan is intended to be an advisory document for the affected local governments, and other public institutions, and does not have the effect of law. A neighborhood renaissance plan is not an amendment to the adopted Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan. Comprehensive plan amendments recommended by an adopted renaissance neighborhood plan will be addressed as they are submitted through regular comprehensive plan amendment process.