The South Round Top Resiliency and Neighborhood Development Plan focuses on the empowerment of the South Round Top Neighborhood.  For this work, Hoxie Collective led a community planning process that supported informed decision-making, a long-term strategy for neighborhood resilience, and near-term community initiatives to model this resilience.  The plans will assist neighborhood leaders and residents as they determine their future by providing new tools to support health, wellness, community connection, development, wealth-building, climate resilience, and learning for all ages. The planning process also set aside $5,000 for community-identified action projects that show progress on the near-term priorities of the neighborhood.

 

Each phase of work for this project included community engagement, analysis, and collaborative strategy design. The full consultant team worked closely with South Round Top residents to provide expertise in organizational capacity building, urban planning, environmental research, and community development.

 

A Community Resilience Strategy documents the steps that the neighborhood is taking to increase their social resilience through becoming more organized, more capable of advocating for the needs of South Round Top residents, and building the skills and partnerships needed to manage complex neighborhood programs and projects.

 

A Neighborhood Development Plan examines the neighborhood’s many vacant and underutilized parcels to create an infill development strategy for housing and commercial buildings.  An intentional neighborhood-guided development process includes:

 

• Proactive strategies to maintain affordable housing

• Performance standards and guidelines for new development

• Urban design strategies for development in different areas of the neighborhood

• Establishing a group of local developers and rehabbers who abide by the neighborhood performance and affordability standards

• Retaining legal counsel to deal with landowners that have negative impacts on the neighborhood.

• Navigating city development processes

• Fundraising and partnership building

 

To achieve the goals of the neighborhood for resiliency and development, the plan details short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies including housing stabilization and home repair, improved connectivity, enhanced safety in public spaces, neighborhood beautification, reuse of vacant lots, and environmental cleanup and sustainability.  Hoxie Collective stays engaged with South Round Top to provide technical assistance on minor home repair programs, neighborhood communications, and the development of the community pocket park.