December 2008

A Letter to Home Owners:

We know that homes in strong neighborhoods have a greater chance of retaining and/or increasing their value. It is becoming apparent that many housing subdivisions, especially those developed within the last forty years, have been overbuilt for the coming market, and are now in increasing competition with each other to recover and maintain value in the near and the long term. Depending on the location and quality of your neighborhood, it is very possible that the supply for your particular type of home may exceed demand for a long time to come. Some neighborhoods now find themselves 'left behind'  either with neighbors moving out, without the amenities and services promised by developers, or within older cities that cannot provide adequate city staff funding to support, organize, let alone implement solutions to better position their neighborhood in the marketplace. How will your neighborhood compete now - and for the length of time that you live there - for new homebuyers? Our group is coordinating funding, design and technical capacities to support existing neighborhood groups or emerging neighborhood leaders that are willing to take local action on these matters:

COMPETITIVE NEIGHBORHOOD ACTION PLAN

There are important ways to 'give your neighborhood an edge' in the short term and begin to earnestly position your neighborhood to be more competitive down the line:

1 BUILD LEADERSHIP CAPITAL

Commit three neighborhood leaders for three years to three hours a week to develop, establish and maintain a working group to implement a competitiveness plan. (150 hours/leader/year x 3 leaders x 3 years) A sacrifice? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely. The organization leadership should: a) be volunteer only, b) be able to obtain grants and perform fundraising, c) be able to hire subcontractors to perform work in support of the plan. It is recommended that the organization and/or leadership terms be set up to expire or be renewed in three years.

2 ORGANIZE LOCAL RESOURCES  

Organize local business and resident groups for in-kind contributions, services and sponsorship. Apply for municipal, county, regional, state level public and private foundation support to pay for neighborhood investments and re-investments. Talk to faith groups and non-profits. Is there a set of professionals in the neighborhood or nearby willing to contribute in-kind or pro-bono services? Don't be afraid to ask for help.

3 HOUSEHOLD ENERGY USE

Coordinate a fun, community building household energy use , water use & recycling competition (i.e. PROJECT GREENHEAD or establish a locally sponsored reward program for turning in incandescent lightbulbs.)

4 NEIGHBORHOOD ENERGY USE

Coordinate techniques for neighborhood wide reduction of energy use, water use & waste.

5 HOUSEHOLD ENERGY GENERATION

Implement household evergy generation technologies (H-EGT) (…household scale solar wind geothermal )

6 NEIGHBORHOOD ENERGY GENERATION

Implement neighborhood wide energy generation technologies (N-EGT) (…larger scale solar wind (C-BED) geothermal)

7 WALKABLE DESTINATIONS

Support one or all of these three initiatives at a municipal level:

LEED QUALITY NEIGHBORHOOD:  Diversification contributes to stability. Implement, plan or zone for sensitive but COMPLIMENTARY new walkable green new projects and/or redevelopments inside or connected to your neighborhood (walking distance shops, offices, small houses, rowhouses, village crossroads, town square, or neighborhood center development(s)) Develop realistic (short, safe and comfortable) pedestrian and biking connections to existing nearby daily services. (SEE www.cnu.org & LEED-ND & www.walkscore.com)SAFE ARTERIALS:  In the next round of your city’s capital improvements, support the redesign and reformatting of automobile centric highway corridors in your community into safe attractive green multimodal thoroughfares (go to www.cnu.org > Initiatives > Highways to Boulevards, also www.ite.org > Context Sensitive Solutions for Major Urban Thoroughfares)TRANSIT:   Encourage reduction in neighborhood vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by establishing comfortable nearby transit stops, HourCar, and/or commuter rideshare website. Request the extension of reliable public transit services to your city, to your neighborhood and to your corner.

8 EDUCATION & MARKETING

Develop an online presence that coordinates and educates neighbors on maintaining competitiveness.

Is your neighborhood group currently taking these issues on? Are your city staff working to maintain the competitiveness of your particular neighborhood? Are there similar or adjoining neighborhoods 'beating' yours? Your home is an investment only you can protect.

Thanks for your attention -

Peter Musty

If you want help getting started, my team can help leaders get organized, facilitate a neighborhood-wide workshop, and then publish & maintain a linked website with an action plan. If necessary, neighborhood specific mapping, planning, urban design, visioning or specialist consulting services available based on local needs.

To schedule a free informal visit or to obtain more information, call me:

612 743-5994