The City of Bloomington will get some help from the public service arm of a Realtors organization to revitalize several west side neighborhoods.
The Counselors of Real Estate Consulting Corps will send a team to survey a broad batch of community stakeholders and write a proposal on how to regenerate the oldest housing stock in the Gridley-Allin-Prickett neighborhood and preserve the neighborhood character of Dimmit's Grove and the near east side.
“This award will have a lasting impact on our community by helping us confront some of our most pressing housing and neighborhood challenges with data-driven strategies and expert guidance,” said Melanie Walker, president of the Mid-Illlinois Realtors Association [MIRA] in Bloomington.
“This partnership brings nationally recognized expertise directly to our community,” Mayor Dan Brady said in a news release.
Ed Neaves, with MIRA, said the Bloomington application was one of four approved in the U.S. by the international group.
“One project they did was for the country of Poland. They wound up telling them how to develop all the right-of-way along the national railroad," said Neaves. "They have experts in finance, in construction, in the human element and not- for-profits. When they see the project on paper, they determine out of their pool of all these 60 disciplines which ones they want to work on this project.”
A few years ago, the team did a similar project in Peoria. Two vacant schools had become a neighborhood detraction and posed a safety issue. The city bought the buildings and tore them down.
“The plan they came up with was to put in senior facilities, health/nursing facilities, Habitat for Humanity homes, and some other rental homes. Today, Habitat for Humanity is flourishing there. They're building these houses, and the health care has come in,” said Neaves.
Other Midwestern projects include Evansville, Indiana, the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago and Traverse City, Michigan.
The consultants also check in at one-two-and five-year intervals and sometimes longer periods to monitor progress and offer additional recommendations, said Neaves, adding the community is getting about $500,000 worth of consulting services for free as part of the confidential process designed to avoid steering recommendations toward any government or organization agenda.
Neaves said MIRA and the Illinois Association of Realtors were successful in a highly competitive field in part because they had a willing partner in the City of Bloomington. There also was preliminary work done, an antiquated 2008 city report on west Bloomington revitalization, that has goals that are still relevant.
He said the city has identified roughly 145 homes suitable for rehabilitation and a couple dozen that could be demolished. He said rehab is more desirable.
“Because you can still keep the character of the neighborhood, and the house society, and the different housing groups can work together. They're coming in to make these neighborhoods better. It's quality of life and quality of place,” said Neaves.
MIRA has provided the consulting corps with a list of 85 stakeholders from education, health care, non-profits, and so on who will be interviewed.
At the end of a week in August, the Corps will present its recommendations to stakeholders in a meeting at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
“That's where the political will of the community and the leaders comes into play," said Neaves. "This only works if they take the plan and we all together work on it to improve whatever they come up with that needs to be improved.”
