Investment Plan Update
Summary of CDC Plan Team Recommendations
2021 Projects
In 2019, the Hidden Valley CDC commissioned the firm, Neighboring Concepts, to update the 2000 Hidden Valley Community Revitalization Plan. The firm conducted several community workshops and discussion forums and delivered their final report “Hidden Valley Neighborhood – Community Reinvestment Plan” dated December 9, 2019. The report outlines a strategy and provides a framework that will support work that neighborhood organizations have already begun. They made suggestions regarding governance, neighborhood involvement, neighborhood “edges” and community investments. They outlined seven key initiatives they believed could be “both effective and successful.” The CDC Plan Team was charged with reviewing the Plan and recommend a 2021 project or projects. The Team decided that the first step would be to prioritize the seven recommended initiatives.
The Team realizes that once there is agreement regarding priorities, the entire community must be engaged to move ahead. Some concern was expressed about the firm’s recommendation to organize task forces within Hidden Valley into four “sub-districts.” The intent of that recommendation was not to divide the community but to provide a way to better coordinate community activities. That recommendation is like the process used by the Hidden Valley Community Association to identify and award the “Yard-of-the-Month”. Hidden Valley is a large community and there needs to be an effective way to organize volunteers and to assign tasks. Any of the initiatives in the Plan, especially the highest priority ones, will require help from the entire Hidden Valley Community.
The Plan Team made eleven recommendations. The recommendations fall within three project areas.
1. Home Ownership – Funding
2. Home Ownership – Information
3. Community Engagement
Team Members:
Bobbie Shields, Team Leader
Floyd Cherry
JC Cousar
Merritt McCully
Pat McDonald
Greg Phipps
Three Project Areas
Home Ownership Assistance – Funding
· Seek funding to assist homeowners who may not have means to maintain their property, such as community development grants.
· Pursue State legislation that would enhance homestead exemption eligibility.
Home Ownership Assistance – Information
· Work with the Hidden Valley Community Association to organize groups to inventory home ownership within Hidden Valley.
· Develop or obtain a general homeowner maintenance manual and make it available to all homeowners in Hidden Valley.
· Educate residents about predatory practices that are used by some developers.
· Evaluate, update and enforce deed restrictions.
· Encourage residents who are renting to pursue homeownership in Hidden Valley.
· Assist current Hidden Valley residents, who prefer to rent, with obtaining units in the new mixed-use developments.
Community Engagement
· Continue to promote pride in the Hidden Valley Community and market it as a welcoming place for long-term living.
· Seek volunteers to help with ongoing gardening projects and pursue beneficial use of land in the Duke Power right-of-way.
Advocate for public funds for mobility, park improvements and educational opportunities related to our community’s beautiful natural environment
THE VALLEY
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