Prospectus

Introduction:

79th Street is a major east-west transportation corridor in Miami-Dade County Florida connecting southern Hialeah with I-95, Biscayne Boulevard and Miami Beach. Despite the fact that it runs through an area that experienced major civil disturbances in the 1980's, and despite a history of declining social and economic conditions and massive influx of Haitian immigrants, it has an unprecedented opportunity for sustainable development. The most significant transit hubs in Dade County is found near where NW 37th Avenue and NW 79th St meet. This is where MetroRail meets Tri Rail. At the eastern end of the Corridor the intersections of 79th Street with I-95 and Biscayne Blvd offer additional transit intensive opportunities.

The 79th Street Corridor Development District has the following boundaries:
  • West: Hialeah Race Track,
  • East: NW 22nd Avenue,
  • South: NW 7lst Street, and
  • North: NW 87th Street.
This planning prospectus presents the overall vision and strategy for the 79th Street Sustainable Development Initiative and defines the actions to be taken in the initial one year planning period. Over the long term the Initiative will catalyze the revitalization of the entire 79th Street Corridor from the Intercoastal Waterway to Hialeah Racetrack. As the project proceeds and we learn more, the prospectus will evolve with the addition of additional information and timelines on project implementation.


The Need for Sustainable Development (top)

South Florida is experiencing, and will continue to experience rapid growth. The regional population is growing by 30,000 new households each year, with two million new households projected over the next 20 years. This rapid growth is fueling development along the urban fringe with the consumption of agricultural lands and open space, seriously threatening the Everglades eco-system.

At the same time that public and private investments are going into sprawl, many existing communities continue to experience systematic disinvestment. They have difficulty securing conventional mortgages at competitive rates; housing is deteriorating; and existing infrastructure is deteriorating and other needed infrastructure is absent.

Sustainable development - environmentally sound infill development in existing communities - is the simultaneous solution to both of these problems: it preserves valuable ecological assets and decreases pressure on the Everglades by diverting development away from fragile ecosystems and directs public investment to existing communities that need it. And sustainable development takes full advantage of existing infrastructure, especially the ability of public transportation to provide efficient access to needed goods and services, rather then duplicating that infrastructure elsewhere. Where new infrastructure is needed, "green infrastructure" accomplishes conventional goals in unconventional ways that utilize community-scale strategies that deliver multiple benefits simultaneously.

The 79th Street Corridor in Miami-Dade County is committed to becoming a model of sustainable development, not only for South Florida, but for the nation. This project can demonstrate that sustainable development encourages and supports equitable and cost-effective reinvestment in existing low- and moderate-income communities.


Building on Community Assets (top)

The West 79th Street Corridor has many valuable assets. Some are tangible; you can touch and feel and count them. Others, however, are equally real, but intangible such as the knowledge of neighbors about their community and volunteer involvement in the schools and other institutions. The successful development of the Corridor requires a full inventory of assets, because they need to be the building blocks of the area's revitalization.

Public Transit Access:

One important tangible sssets is that the Corridor has greater access to public transportation than any other site in Miami-Dade County

The proposed development district is the intersection of MetroRail (which connects to downtown and jobs north and south), Tri-Rail (which connects to the Miami International Airport and to job-rich Broward and Palm Beach counties) and Amtrak (which connects to the whole United States).

The project's design needs to promote easy access to these transportation assets and include pedestrian friendly features so that walking becomes a pleasurable and natural part of accessing amenities in the nearby community.

The bottom line is that the opportunity to live without a car - or with only one car - are greater in this Corridor than practically anywhere else in the region. And since cars cost $350 to 500 per month, this asset translates directly into stronger family economics. These existing transportation assets may need to be supplemented with stronger intra-community transit.

Skills of Residents

Local residents have a reservoir of skills and talents, many of which have yet to be recognized in the job market. These skills need to be inventoried and used to identify economic development opportunities and link residents to jobs.

Potential of assembling significant amounts of land

Some of this land is near the Amtrak site approximately 30 acres. Another major contiguous parcel is the 300 unit mobil home park owned by Florida East Coast Railroad. There is also an excess of land around the NorthSide Shopping Center. The district would seek to reconfigure these and other underutilized sites throughout the corridor to create more neighborhood cohesion and to establish a new focal point at the MetroRail/Tri-Rail/Amtrak stop. There is reason to believe that Amtrack land will make this land available for redevelopment by a community-based development consortium.

Undervalued Market Potential

The target area has substantial purchasing power which is not now captured by community businesses. The project will map this purchasing power of the area residents and use that as a marketing tool for encouraging siting of commercial businesses that meet the needs and interests of area residents.

Of special concern is the nurturing of minority entrepreneurs, perhaps through a mechanism which links together franchisors, transit-oriented development sits, qualified minority entrepreneurs and new sources of equity financing.

Home Ownership Opportunities

The project will seek to strengthen the existing residential areas within the corridor and increase opportunities for homeownership. It will focus on credit access strategies using the Community Reinvestment Act and other voluntary agreements with banks, Fannie Mae, and other mortgage lenders, including possibly Location Efficient Mortgages.

Proximity to Jobs

The Corridor's transit access means that residents have unparalleled access to the South Florida job market. There are considerable jobs in the industrial corridor along 36th Avenue accessible by bus in addition to the enormous job potential around all the MetroRail and Tri-Rail stops in the region. This project will enhance this access to jobs through skill-based job training linked to specific industrial sectors. This will require the participation of local employers in the plans for this corridor.

Freight Movement

The freight yards that lie immediately north of the site are also the location of many jobs. The project will seek to build a partnership with the railroad companies to enhance opportunities for residents and to provide desired auxiliary services for the companies.

Access to Rights of Way

The rail rights of way that intersect at the 79th Street station are ideally suited for expanding fiber optic capacity in the 79th Street Corridor. Additional fiber optic capacity can create opportunities for telecomputer centers and for back office operations for businesses that rely heavily on extensive phone and computer services.

Infrastructure Investment

The project area's lack of sewer and stormwater infrastructure is an opportunity to provide these basic services in creative ways that also build the community and its open space in a way which can be a model for the region. The project will consider rebuilding of major streets with landscaped median strips that can hold stormwater, utilizing undeveloped land for engineered wetlands and holding ponds to process this stormwater naturally. This process will be linked to the creation of additional recreation facilities and open space.



Intangible Assets:

The Sense of Place

Many residents have lived in this area for many years, making a commitment to this place despite its problems. They have done so because they value their neighbors, their churches, their schools, their clubs. They remember and are brought together by a shared history. This web of personal relationships has taken decades to build and represents one of the region's strongest assets.

Knowledge of the Community

With this web of personal relationships comes a depth of knowledge about the community, its residents, its stores, its institutions. This redevelopment project needs to value and take advantage of this important base of community knowledge.

Environmental Quality of Life

This corridor was built on wetlands and, in parts, pine forests. The project will respect the natural systems that underlie current development patterns. The acknowledgment of these ecological features will permit the community to better withstand the forces of nature and will contribute to the well being of the ecosystem of the area.

Location Efficiency

As described above, the Corridor already has access to many forms of public transportation; buses, MetroRail, Tri-Rail, Amtrak and there are sidewalks in many parts of the area. The goal is to increase the number of useful destinations within the community and then to make the community pedestrian-friendly as well as transit-rich, so that the full benefits of this location efficiency can be experienced.

Project Leadership

The West 79th Street Development Project is led by a consortium of community-based development corporations, in a strategic partnership with the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The Center for Neighborhood Technology is a Chicago-based non-profit organization committed to sustainable development.


Goals (top)

The Initiative has seven goals:

1. Provide ready job access to the entire South Florida region: 79th Street's transportation system links the community to Downtown Miami, Miami International Airport and all of the major urban areas in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. More jobs are readily accessible by public transportation from 79th Street than from any other location in the South Miami region.

2. Expand opportunities for homeownership: Just as homeownership is one of the community's stabilizing factors today, a future community with even higher levels of homeownership will encourage community participation and wealth creation.

3. Facilitate the expansion of commercial activity in the Corridor to provide access to needed goods and services, create new jobs, and expand entrepreneurial opportunities. 79th Street residents today lack the retail and other services that their collective buying power can support. Providing these goods and services will make the community more attractive and provide needed jobs.

4. Strengthen the neighborhood's accessibility to and focus around public transportation. 79th Street has unparalleled transportation services, but the community is not yet designed to maximize that asset.

5. Ensure the ability to live well without a car: Car ownership is very expensive for everyone, but particularly burdensome for low- and moderate-income families. 79th Street's transportation services give residents the realistic chance to live well without owning a car.

6. Implement "green infrastructure" -- low cost, appropriate-scaled and environmentally friendly solutions to basic needs: Much of the 79th Street area is serviced by septic systems and inadequate stormwater drainage. This lack is also an opportunity to create new, lower cost, appropriately scaled infrastructure that works with, rather than against the environment, and provides other benefits, such as open space and trees.

7. Respect the environment: The 79th Street Corridor was built on wetlands and, in parts, pine forests. The project will respect the natural systems that underlie current development patterns. Future development will seek to enhance those features with development patterns and technology that can work with the forces of nature and contribute to the well being of the area's ecosystem.

 
The Challenge (top)

The challenge of the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project is more one of ingenuity than of dollars. The South Florida Region is growing rapidly with enormous sums of money to be invested over the next 20 years.

The South Florida Water Management District: This government agency expects to spend as much as $50 billion dollars over the next 50 years to build and rebuild South Florida's water infrastructure alone.

Fannie Mae: The nation's largest home mortgage underwriter has allocated $14 billion for home mortgages in South Florida over the next 5 years.

Housing Construction: The region's anticipated population growth will require nearly 30,000 new dwelling units per year at an estimated total cost of $70 billion.

Federal Transportation Investments: Florida will receive an estimated $1.2 billion per year in federal transportation funding between 1998 and 2003 from the newly authorized Transportation and Equity Act for the 21st Century.

As these examples show, enormous amounts of both public and private money will be invested in South Florida in the coming years. The challenge is to spend these dollars wisely.

From the perspective of the 79th Street Corridor, this challenge is also an opportunity to secure the resources needed to enhance the health and vitality of the community. This will only be possible if this community gets its equitable share of the public and private resources flowing in the region as a whole.

This Planning Prospectus outlines a one year process that will set the stage for securing these needed resources through the development of

* A broad consensus within the community about its future,

* Innovative public/private partnerships,

* Innovative new technologies, and

* New financing mechanisms.

79th Street can be the laboratory for community-scale sustainable development strategies for the entire South Florida region, thereby expanding the range of opportunities for other communities throughout the region.


Governance and Community Involvement (top)

The 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project has three levels of governance and community involvement:

Strategic Partners: Four non-profit organizations, which represent a depth of community development expertise and a demonstrated commitment to sustainable development, will have the ultimate decision-making authority for the project.

Steering Committee: Approximately 20 individuals who bring expertise, resources, and connections, will govern the day-to-day operations of the project and be intimately involved in all aspects of the project.

Community Advisory Committee: A broad-based community group will connect the project to a diversity of local organizations, interests, and constituencies, participate actively in community design workshops, and provide opportunities for ongoing community feedback as the project goes forward.

A redevelopment strategy with the vision and scope of the 79th Street Project requires all of these groups, working together, to bring it to fruition.

A. Strategic Partners

The 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project is led by four non-profit organizations that represent considerable expertise in community development:

The Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. is committed to enabling Blacks to cultivate their full potential through advocacy and service-delivery. To that end, the Urban League intervenes in social and economic structures where the interests of Blacks are at stake, as well as working within existing institutions to make them more responsive to the needs of Blacks in the community. Specialized programs or services in the education, housing, employment, community development, economic development, urban affairs, social welfare, and citizenship education are part of this organization's strategic plan to empower Blacks. In the arena of housing and community and economic development, the Urban League is involved in a variety of projects throughout Miami-Dade County, with its area of primary focus being Model City. The Sugar Hill Apartments rehabilitation, the construction and rehabilitation of Superior Manor Apartments, and the acquisition and renovation of the Northside Shopping Center are three projects the Urban League currently has underway.

Miami-Dade Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. provides affordable housing to low-income families. It presently is producing affordable housing as part of its "infill" housing development program. In addition MD-NHS makes low interest housing rehabilitation loans to local residents who are not qualified for conventional bank lending. It has an innovated homebuyer education assistance program in which first time homebuyers are walked through the process right up through the closing. A consortium of banks provide the conventional first mortgages to match the County's HOME or Surtax 2nd mortgage. Homebuyers are helped with the complex loan qualification process. MDNHS has started marketing these service to CDCs and other developers who find it attractive because it relieves them of the expense of providing these services in-house.

Dade Employment and Economic Development Corporation (DEEDCO) is a community economic development corporation that strives to improve the quality of life for all of Miami-Dade County's citizens. This non-profit developer services various target areas within Miami-Dade County through its many housing and economic development ventures. Two of its recently completed projects include the Olympia Office/Gusman Theatre Building and DEEDCO Gardens. DEEDCO is currently working to help redevelop the Brownsville Renaissance Center.

Center for Neighborhood Technology invents and implements tools and strategies for healthy urban communities. It seeks to achieve environmental improvement, economic growth, and community vitality simultaneously. The Center spearheads coalitions to change public policy, creates market-based mechanisms that build on community assets, and generates information that frames the public dialogue and promotes community participation. The Center's work is grounded in the Chicago region, it is national in scope.

The four strategic partners are responsible for the following functions, among others:

* Hiring of Project Director,
* Approval of budgets,
* Approval of contracts,
* Financial management,
* Coordination of funding efforts, and
* Selection of Steering Committee.

The relationship between the four strategic partners is memorialized in a Memorandum of Understanding that has been adopted by each of the four board of directors.

B. Steering Committee

The operational coordination of the nnn79th Street Project will be vested in a Steering Committee, which includes approximately 20 individuals with expertise and connections necessary to make the project work. The Steering Committee is responsible for:

* Management of the community participation process,

* Selection of members of the Community Advisory Committee,

* Involvement of other institutions, agencies, business etc. in the development process,

* Adoption of a Strategic Plan,

* Advocacy to government agencies, funding sources and others on behalf of the project,

* Oversight of work by consultants and partners,

* Fund raising for direct project costs,

* Mobilization of resources for all aspects of the project,

* Resolution of disputes among participants, and

* Other functions necessary to the success of the project.

The Steering Committee does not directly operate any of the components of the project. All operations are managed through "partnership agreements" with individuals and organizations negotiated by the Steering Committee. Through these partnership agreements, the Steering Committee ensures accountability to the overall plan. Members of the Steering Committee may be involved in operating one or more elements of the project, but may not vote on any partnership agreement to which they are a party.

C. Community Advisory Committee

To be successful, the revitalization of the 79th Street Corridor needs to flow from the gifts and talents of community residents and result in the empowerment of community residents. When the development program is complete, the community needs to have stronger institutions that can preserve and extend what has already been accomplished.

The 79th Street area already has many community institutions, from block clubs to churches to clubs and merchants associations. Although the conventional wisdom is that communities like 79th Street are devoid of institutions, inventories in similar communities have disclosed a wealth of organizations. A survey of Grand Boulevard, a low-income African-American community on Chicago's South Side, discovered, for example, that its 36,000 residents supported 319 different organizations.

Mobilizing this network of organizational capacity will be essential to the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project. To accomplish this, the project will convene a Community Advisory Committee that includes a broad cross section of community leadership. The Community Advisory Committee will be responsible for:

* Participation in Community Design Workshops,

* Advising the Steering Committee on plan development and implementation,

* Engaging many sectors of the community in the planning process, and

* Sponsoring periodic Town Meetings that would report to the community on the progress of the plan.

D. Collins Smart Growth Center

A "South Florida Smart Growth Center" is being launched as part of the Collins Center for Public Policy, which will provide leadership for sustainable development in the region. This new institution, under the leadership of Rod Petrey, a Partner in Holland and Knight and former Chair of Greater Miami Local Initiatives Support Corporation, will link the private, non-profit, and governmental sectors in strategies for smart growth.

The 79th Street Project has proposed to form a strategic partnership with the Smart Growth Center. Although the details of this relationship have yet to be worked out, the project expects to be adopted by the Smart Growth Center as a regional demonstration project.

E. Other Partners

The project will work closely with the Greater Miami Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Brownfields Initiative, Eastward Ho!, Empowerment Zones and other programs that are focused in the redevelopment of existing communities in South Florida.


The Strategy for Sustainable Development (top)

The strategy for the sustainable development of the 79th Street Corridor includes six components:
Visioning, Planning and Information: The overall sustainability vision and implementation plan, and the information system that encourages and supports continuous learning and improvement.

Green Infrastructure: Strategies to provide essential infrastructure in ways that minimize costs and environmental impacts.

Jobs and Business Development: Strategies and programs which make the most of the locational efficiencies of the target area connect to existing jobs and create new ones, and to expand business opportunity for community residents

Key Development Projects: Three major development projects that, by their location and scale, can have a decisive impact on the community.

Neighborhood Revitalization: The engagement of residents and the business people in the renewal of residential areas, commercial strips, and social, health, and educational institutions and programs.

Innovative Finance: A range of strategies that can capture funding for sustainable development at the community level that otherwise would be spent on large systems or which permit the marketplace to recognize locational and environmental assets.


Action Steps

This Prospectus identifies specific actions for each component. Partners are identified who have operational responsibility for each action in an appendix that was to be updated regularly


Visioning, Planning, and Information (top)

The first element of the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Plan is a process of visioning and planning that determines what the community wants to achieve, supported by an information system that will identify measures of success and reports back to the community periodically on progress to date.

Visioning and planning needs to engage large numbers of people in the community in a process that breaks out of "taken-for-granted" mind sets and defines a new and better future. This challenge is particularly difficult in the arena of sustainable development, because many of the methods, technologies, and financial mechanisms are still being invented.

Community planning of this sort entails a risk, because it is an exercise in hope. There is never an assurance that even the most wonderful community plan will actually be accomplished. By conventional wisdom, the more ambitious the dream, the more difficult it is to achieve. In contrast, this planning process assumes that that a comprehensive sustainable development strategy will identify efficiencies and synergies graphic of projectthat will make large-scale development less expensive and more feasible than small scale, incremental improvements.

Information is the feedback loop that tells the community whether it is achieving the goals outlined in the Plan. Feedback of this sort requires that the community first come to consensus on its goals and priorities; then those goals and priorities have to be translated into measurable objectives. Once this has been accomplished, it is then possible periodically to issue a scorecard on the redevelopment process. How are we doing? Are we on track? Do we need to adjust our plans to adapt to changing circumstances?

This information component acknowledges that even the best plan will miss its mark to some extent and will require modifications. A scorecard approach permits the entire community to keep track of progress, and both own the successes and readjust to respond to the failures.

Action 1: Organize Strategic Visioning Workshop.

In the spring of 1999, the project will hold a Strategic Visioning Workshop for the Strategic Partners and Steering Committee which will:

* Develop a preliminary vision for the project and its major elements;

* Clarify the functional relationships between the elements of the project; and

* Convey an initial visual expression of what the community will look and feel like at the end of the development process.

Action 2: Convene a Community Advisory Committee.

The Steering Committee will convene a broad based Community Advisory Committee (see above).

Action 3: Organize a Community Design Workshop.

In the spring and summer of 1999, the Steering Committee and Community Advisory Committee will organize a Community Design Workshop. This intensive workshop will engage many community residents in envisioning a sustainable community. It will repeat the exercise described under Action #1, but with much more information.

Action 4: Develop a Detailed Sustainable Development Plan.

The two workshops, together with the ongoing planning for key development projects, will provide the basis for a Sustainable Development Plan that will integrate all of the sustainability elements - from land use to green infrastructure to jobs - into a coherent plan, with projections of capital and organizational requirements.

Action 5: Design and Implement a Community Information and Communication System.

The sustainability goals for the community identified in visioning and design workshops and incorporated in the Sustainable Development Plan will be turned Car ownershipinto a scorecard or "instrument panel" that will permit every community resident to track the project's progress. Periodic reporting on these progress indicators will enhance the ability of community residents to participate in the development process.

Action 6: Inventory Ownership and Status of Properties in the Targeted Area.

The project will create a data base of key properties, with as much information about them as can be identified from the public record. This data base will anchor a Graphic Information System (GIS) capacity to map current and potential land uses.


Green Infrastructure (top)

Water and Sewers

Since much of the project area still uses septic systems and has inadequate stormwater infrastructure, there is an opportunity for innovative "green" sewers and stormwater systems that can become a model for the region. These new technologies, linked to good urban design, canreshape the face of the community.

A number of new technologies are relevant to the 79th Street target area, some of which have already been proposed for the adjacent Hialeah. They include:

*-- Redesigning streets and street median strips to serve as stormwater retention areas,

*-- Utilizing undeveloped land for engineered wetlands and holding ponds for stormwater retention, and

*-- Biological treatment of sewage in greenhouses.

These technologies would simultaneously green the community with trees and vegetation and create open space and recreation areas.

Action 7: Inventory the Water and Sewer Infrastructure System in the Target Area.

The project will develop a detailed map of the community's water and sewer infrastructure and use that inventory to evaluate and scale the needs for new infrastructure.

Action 8: Inventory Alternative Design and Technology Options for Green Stormwater and Sewer Infrastructure.

This research effort will identify all of the green options for stormwater and sewer infrastructure relevant for the community so that the community would have the greatest possible range of options.

Action 9: Evaluate Financing Options for New Infrastructure.

Using the options described in Section V below, the project will develop alternative financing scenarios for these technological options.DensityAction 10: Develop an Infrastructure Strategy.

The results of Actions 10, 11 and 12 will inform the development of a 79th Street Corridor Infrastructure Strategy that will be incorporated in the overall Sustainable Development Plan.

B. Transportation

While the target area's transportation access to Miami-Dade County and the three-county area is good, the challenge is intra-community mobility. Some residents, particularly seniors and youth, cannot drive, so such a community-centered transportation strategy is essential. For others, efficient intra-community mobility could make the difference in being able to live a full life without owning a car.

There are at least three elements of a community mobility strategy:

*-- Sidewalks: Good quality sidewalks throughout the community,

*-- Strong pedestrian linkages: A community design which encourages and enhances pedestrian access to jobs and amenities, and

*-- Jitneys: An intra-community transportation system that links with public transit, shopping, etc.

Action 11: Develop an Intra-Community Mobility Strategy.

Inventory existing intra-community transportation assets and identify barriers to mobility; then explore and evaluate a range of options to enhance intra-community mobility.

C Energy

Decreasing energy demand and increasing energy reliability should be two goals of the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Strategy. This can be accomplished through a number of initiatives including:

*-- Micro-Grid Analysis: Evaluation of the electricity distribution system in the target area to identify potential peak loading problems and demand reduction opportunities to decrease peak loads, improve system reliability, and strengthen the neighborhood economy.

*-- Solar Energy: Evaluation of the potential for solar energy in the community, including the retrofit of existing structures and the incorporation of state-of-the-art solar technology into new housing and commercial development.

Action 12: Develop an Energy Conservation and Reliability Strategy.

The project will model energy use in the target area and explore a range of approaches to decrease energy use, decrease energy costs, and increase energy reliability.

D. Telecommunications

More and more economic transactions are handled electronically, requiring access to high speed fiber optic transmission lines. Communities that can tap in this transmission network will experience a much wider range of jobs and economic development options than those that do not.

The 79th Street Corridor should be able to take advantage of the railroad and transit rights-of-way to gain fiber optic access. With this technology serving the neighborhood, a reservation center serving the port, for example, could be located at the Amtrak site, which is adjacent to these rights-of-way.

Action 13: Evaluate Access to Fiber Optic Telecommunications Transmission Lines and Development Opportunities that are Fiber Optic-dependent.

The project needs to assess the state of fiber optic technology in South Florida and its relationship to the 79th Street target area. It also needs to evaluate the extent to which telecommunications-related industry is locating in South Florida and what it would take to make it a component of the 79th Street development strategy



Jobs and Business Development (top)

A. Industrial Jobs

Jobs are an integral aspect of the entire sustainable development strategy. Jobs will be generated by the redevelopment of the Northside Shopping Center and the Amtrak site, as well from housing rehabilitation and new housing construction (see below). In addition the target community has three unusual sources of other jobs derived from its unique position in the metro area, industrial jobs (especially replacement jobs) in two industrial areas and a wide range of jobs further north accessed by Tri-Rail:

36th Avenue Industrial Corridor: The industrial corridor from 79th Street to Miami International Airport that is rich in industrial firms and jobs and is well served by rapid transit and bus routes, and

* Poinciana Industrial Park: The Poinciana Industrial Park located between NW 79th St. on the north, the FEC railroad on the south, NW 27th Ave. on the west and NW 22ndAve on the east. It was originally conceived as a cooperative venture between Miami Dade County and New Century Development Corporation to create jobs for adjacent public housing residents. The County acquired the land and used CDBG dollars to install the infrastructure (sewers, roads, and water). New Century's job was to recruit industrial tenants using a variety of incentives and financial tools, including a state-sanctioned "enterprise zone," grants and loans from the federal, state and local governments, and active cooperation from the Beacon Council. Although some tenants were attracted, the results have been generally disappointing. Most prospective tenants are interested in a completed building ready for occupancy, not a vacant parcel of land. Recently EPA has provided the county with funds to help alleviate brownsfield conditions within the park boundaries.

Action 14: Carry Out a Sector-by-Sector Analysis of the 36th Avenue Industrial Corridor.

This sectoral analysis will identify employment niches where there is a steady demand for skilled workers - both for replacement and new positions. It will evaluate the ways that employers currently find workers and explore new strategies to put potential 79th Street Corridor workers "in the information loop" about job openings. This study will also look for situations where employers are having difficulty finding skilled workers and then explore potential job training partnerships between trade associations, non-profit organizations, businesses and community colleges to meet these training needs.

B. Jobs Access via Transit

In Greater Miami and in the three county area, jobs can be accessed through the 79th Street MetroRail and Tri-Rail stations at 36th Avenue in

* Downtown Miami,
* Miami International Airport,
* Fort Lauderdale,
* West Palm Beach, and
* Other urban areas in Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

Action 15: Carry Out a Job Linkage Analysis Along the Tri-Rail Corridor: One of the advantages of the 79th Street Project is its access to jobs along the Tri-Rail Corridor. For this to translate into real jobs, much more information is needed about the job market surrounding the various Tri-Rail stations, including the wages and benefits offered and the skills required. Such a study should also explore the desirability and feasibility of "sister community" relationships with 79th Street, for example, a partnership between 79th Street and West Palm Beach that would formally link that job-rich community with the worker-rich 79th Street area.


Commercial Development(top)

The proposed revitalization of the Northside Shopping Center (below) will go a long way toward revitalizing the commercial sector of the target area. Not all of the target area businesses, however, are located in the shopping center. Others are located along 79th Street west between 27th and 36th Avenue; still others are on 27th Avenue north of 79th Street.

Action 16: Inventory the Businesses in the Target Area.

In cooperation with merchant and business associations, the project will create a detailed inventory of all of the commercial establishments in the community, seeking information about

* Employment levels,
* Training needs,
* Marketing,
* Community relations, and
* Current and potential linkages with other local businesses.

Action 17: Identify Business and Job Opportunities in the Sustainable Development Plan.

The Sustainable Development Plan will provide direction for a redevelopment of the target area that will cost millions of dollars to implement. It will involve new construction, application of new technologies, expansion of retail opportunities, etc. This process itself will be carried out in a way that it optimizes the job and economic benefits for residents.

D. Culture and Tourism

Culture is both a value in itself, as an expression of the identity and aspirations of community residents, and a "destination" for people outside the community, including potentially tourists. What are the existing cultural assets in the target area? How can the Sustainable Development Strategy enhance their stability and outreach? What is the potential to incorporate a cultural center within a Multi-Modal Center at the Amtrak site that takes advantage of its regional transportation access?

Action 18: Develop a Cultural and Tourism Strategy

Inventory existing cultural institutions and resources in the target area and surrounding area. Explore a range of options for strengthening the cultural life of the community, including the possibility of a cultural center located at the Amtrak site.


Key Development Projects(top)

Northside Shopping Center

The Northside Shopping Center is the most important commercial center for the target area, as well as serving a much larger market area. Its successful redevelopment is essential to the success of this sustainable development strategy. The Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. is negotiating to purchase the shopping center with the intention of redeveloping it.

Today, the Northside Shopping Center is set back from 79th Street with a massive parking lot that is used for parking by tractor trailers. It has poor pedestrian access from the community. The MetroRail stops two blocks to the west on 79th Street, but there is no sense of connection between the station and the shopping center. In addition, the shopping center has little visual or functional connection to the intersection of 79th Street and 27th Avenue.

The challenge is to envision the Northside Shopping Center as the "town square" for the surrounding neighborhood and as an anchor of a sustainable development strategy. The conversion of first generation shopping centers surrounded by a massive parking lot into an urban town center is happening elsewhere around the country, including University Park, IL. This strategy converts the obsolete shopping center from a destination for shopping alone to a place where many things happen: shopping, education, public administration, entertainment, etc.

The shopping center needs to be the heart of the community economy, capturing a substantial portion of the neighborhood's dollars. This can be enhanced by giving residents financial incentives to shop there. A "community smart card" should be explored which combines a transit pass with "affinity discounts" at stores in the center. The center needs to explore ways to encourage small scale entrepreneurship through "push carts" and other mechanisms that can provide an entry point for local residents into business ownership.

In addition, the land surrounding the shopping center offers opportunities for creative, mixed uses, from stormwater retention to new townhouse development. The center should become a model of resource efficiency as a way to keep operating costs low and expand profit margins for merchants.

The Urban League is likely to explore the possibility of a Magic Johnson Multiplex Theater, additional national anchors, etc. That program could be strengthened by the location of federal offices on the site or by other office uses which would provide a steady flow of people to the town center.

Action 19: Develop a Sustainable Redevelopment Plan for the Shopping Center.

The project will seek to convene a planning charette of "green developers" identified through US EPA's Smart Growth Network as a way to expand the range of options for the site and identify creative financing strategies. This charette will define a "specification" for the shopping center redevelopment that will be incorporated into the Sustainable Development Plan.

Amtrak Multi-Modal Site

MetroRail, Tri-Rail and Amtrak come together - or nearly come together - at 79th Street, making 79th Street the most important transit hub in the region. The 79th Street Tri-Rail stop, for example, has the highest ridership in the system, with an average of 36,000 rides per month (average of January-March, 1998), or 35.2% of Tri-Rail's total. Many of these riders arrive at the station via MetroRail.

Just north and east of the MetroRail and Tri-Rail stations is the Hialeah Amtrak Station, also now serving as the Miami Amtrak Station. At some time in the future, the Miami station may move to the Intermodal Center near the Miami International Airport.

The Amtrak site includes a 60's era station, a turn around, and a large, underutilized parking lot. In total, the site covers 28 acres. Amtrak has expressed interest in the redevelopment of this site.

The Amtrak site requires a focus and identity that is complementary to the redeveloped Northside Shopping Center. The site might become a Multi-Modal Center with mixed uses, including convenience retail at the transit stops (drug store, cleaners, day care, food mart), a cultural center, new residential, including townhouses and a mid-rise residential building, light industrial, including possibly an Amtrak parcel service, back office facilities linked to proposed fiber optic capacity, and innovative stormwater and sewage treatment facilities.

Amtrak's Great American Station Foundation, for example, has made a modest grant to the Center for Neighborhood Technology, one of the four Strategic Partners, to work on this redevelopment strategy.

Action 20: Secure an Option for the Amtrak Site.

One of the first tasks in this priority development will be to negotiate an option for the Amtrak site. This agreement will also specify the nature and conditions of Amtrak's possible equity participation in the overall development.

Action 21: Complete a Sustainable Development Plan for the Amtrak Site.

The Winter, 1998 Strategic Visioning Workshop will develop a preliminary schematic development plan for the Amtrak site that will specify the desired mix of uses. Once an option on the property has been secured, the project will seek to convene a sustainable development design charette with "green developers" similar to the one proposed for the Northside Shopping Center. The results of this charette will then guide the development.

Mobile Home Parks

One of the most blighted parts of the target community is a mobile home park on the south side of 79th Street between 27th and 35th Avenues. The site has approximately 300 aging mobile homes with numerous housing code violations. It calls for affordable replacement housing. The challenge that a site of this type poses is that replacement housing has to be located for current residents before new housing can be constructed.

The site might be an ideal opportunity for modular housing, especially if the factory were to be located in the community and provide jobs for community residents.

Action 22: Secure an Option for the Mobile Home Park.

The project needs to negotiate an option on the mobile home park from its current owners, the Florida East Coast Railway. There are indications that FEC is interested in divesting itself of this property. This negotiation would determine whether FEC might be willing to donate the property as part of a community revitalization strategy remain an equity partner in the new development.

Action 23: Complete a Sustainable Redevelopment Strategy for Mobile Home Park.

The initial challenge of this project will be to identify replacement housing for current residents so that the land can be made available for development. The trailers would then be replaced with permanent, affordable, quality housing that embodies a sustainability ethic. This planning effort will explore the possibility of bringing a manufactured housing plant to the community that is willing and able to produce environmentally friendly housing units.


Neighborhood Revitalization(top)

The previous components of the Sustainable Development Strategy have focused on what needs to be "new" in the target area. Much of what is valuable about this area, however, is in place already: good housing, stores, schools, institutions, and services. The Sustainable Development Strategy will build on, and make the most of, these existing community assets.

Housing :

Much of the housing in the target area is fundamentally solid, but it needs better maintenance - and community building. This can be accomplished through a targeted strategy that includes:

* Block club organizing,
* Block signage and identification,
* Home improvement loans,
* Replacement of septic systems with a new sewer system,
* Street repaving,
* Tree planting,
* New parks and playgrounds,
* Sidewalks (where needed), and
* Street lighting improvements.

Some of these improvements will be made by individual home and business owners and require access to credit; others will require access to public investment dollars.

Action 24: Conduct an Assessment of Community Housing Conditions.

The project will carry out a detailed assessment of the condition of the housing in the community. It will include a windshield survey of all of the residential properties in the project area, an analysis of governmental records to identify parcels in trouble with tax arrears, building code violations, and other problem indicators. It will also identify block clubs and other organizations of residents that can be engaged in the revitalization process..

Action 25: Identify Technological Options for Residential Revitalization.

The project will identify "green" housing strategies that are relevant for the community and explore the construction of a model home or model rehab to expose community residents to sustainability options.

Action 26: Development of a Sustainable Residential Revitalization Strategy.

This data from Actions 24 and 25 will provide the basis for a Housing Revitalization Strategy that will be incorporated into the Sustainable Development Plan.

B. Community Institutions and Services

The 79th Street area needs strong schools, health centers and social service institutions. The Steering Committee will encourage and support the development of a comprehensive strategic planning process around education and human services to complement the jobs and economic development focus of the core project.

This effort will explore the current and potential connections between human services delivery and economic development. Schools and health centers represent a significant component of the community economy; they hire staff and purchase goods and services. Leaders of this strategic planning process are proposed to come from the Community Advisory Committee.

Action 27: Inventory the Organizations and Institutions in Target Area.

This inventory will present a comprehensive picture of the social networks that hold this community together and the many and varied routes by which residents can become engaged in neighborhood revitalization.

Action 28: Assess the Availability and Quality of Schools, Health, and Human Services.

This assessment will determine where community residents receive their education, health services and other human services, what services are unavailable, and how community residents judge the quality of these services.

Action 29: Develop a Schools, Health, and Human Services Strategy.

Based the information from Actions 29 and 30, a schools, health, and human services strategy will be developed which will be incorporated into the Sustainable Development Plan.

Innovative Finance(top)

The implementation of this Sustainable Development Strategy will require a major infusion of public and private resources. Some of these resources can come from the creative reallocation of public e xpenditures which would otherwise be spent on less sustainable strategies; some can come through creative new financing instruments; some can come from the target area offering valuable "environmental services" to a broader area; still others can come from the creative use of federal funding, particularly transportation funding.

A. Water Infrastructure Crediting

The goal of water infrastructure crediting is to secure funding for sewer and stormwater infrastructure from the South Florida Water Management District by demonstrating that alternative, community-scale technologies can achieve the District's water management goals at a competitive cost. This would divert funding from conventional water management methods such as canals and pumping stations into community improvements that produce a comparable environmental benefit.

Action 30: Develop a Mechanism for Financing a Community-Scale Stormwater Infrastructure System.

The project will work with the South Florida Water Management District to determine which alternative technologies can achieve its obj