Building Community Through Partnerships: The Impact of Renewal Community Designation on Local Revitalization

Author: Jonathan Lepofsky

Dissertation School: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract:

This study examines the impact of Renewal Community (RC) designation on an ongoing local neighborhood revitalization initiative in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The RC program is the latest addition to the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The purpose of the RC program is twofold: 1) HUD hopes to increase the economic viability of distressed communities through tax incentives and wage controls; and 2) HUD wishes to build on existing and stimulate new partnerships between government and communities to encourage investment within the RC-designated zone. This study will provide an initial assessment of the RC program.

HUD announced 40 RC zones in late 2001, including a RC area in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The ongoing local initiative incorporates five inner-city neighborhoods and has functioned for 3 years prior to the creation of Chattanooga's RC zone. Two of these neighborhoods are within the RC zone and the other three are outside of the RC zone boundaries. This study will assess the impact RC designation has in the arenas of economic investment, infrastructure improvements, and community capacity development by comparing the two neighborhoods with RC designation to the three neighborhoods without RC designation.

This study builds off of previous research. Research design is built around accessible archival data and key-informant interviews. Data used in the study includes: transcripts from proposed and previous interviews, published findings from previous research, records for the number of commercial property developments, new commercial endeavors, property ownership changes, and changes in property values in the target neighborhoods. Data to be used also includes maps and other documents noting streetscape improvements and beautification projects, number of housing stock improvements, and changes in the city's transportation and technology networks within target neighborhoods. Additional data will document rate of resident participation in neighborhood organizations, overall resident participation in revitalization activities as well as historical data for each target neighborhood consisting of newspaper accounts, published oral histories, and documents from neighborhood associations.

Data will be analyzed to create a baseline portrait of each of the five neighborhoods at the start of the local initiative (T1), at the start of the RC program (T2), and after a year of RC designation (T3). Data will be analyzed to control for variations that impact outcomes for all five neighborhoods, including economic investments prior to T1 and T2, plans for infrastructure improvements made prior to T1 and T2, levels of resident participation in neighborhood organizations prior to T1 and T2, and neighborhoods' history with previous revitalization activities prior to T1. This proposed project will answer the following questions:

• What is the initial impact of RC designation on the local revitalization initiative?
• What factors facilitate and hinder positive impacts of RC designation on the local revitalization initiative?

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