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Home My WebLink AboutB-4 Neighborhood Improvement Strategy • • al • 4C 41 a r f t rAZUS AGENDA ITEM TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: RICK COLE, CITY MANAGERI(J-- DATE: OCTOBER. 1st 2001 SUBJECT: NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION It is recommended City Council authorize creation of a Neighborhood Improvement Team coordinated by a Deputy to the City Manager for Neighborhood Improvement and initial funding of up to $250,000 during FY 2001-02 for special projects. BACKGROUND Over the past three years, the City Council has given direction to pursue four priority themes: Fiscal Stability, Community Development, Two-Way Communication and Strategic Vision. Progress has been made in each of these areas, supporting new homes, new businesses and new public investment. These successes have also strengthened community pride and City organizational capacity ravaged during years of harsh cutbacks. The Neighborhood Improvement Zone program has been an experiment for "improving all of Azusa, one neighborhood at a time." The first two areas have helped us fine tune what works best at building partnerships with neighbors and community institutions to coordinate reinvestment of time, money and effort in older areas of the city. Congruent with this program, our Police Department is embarking on a systematic commitment to community- oriented policing, are augmenting our code enforcement staff and we are working with a wide range of volunteer community efforts. Some of the models for these efforts are Operation Clean Sweep (in the Sixth and Lime Street area); the anti-hate crime neighborhood response meetings (near Lee School); the Citylinks partnership with APU in NIZ II; and the monthly community clean-up efforts spearheaded by Councilmember Rocha. These successes give us both a new urgency and a new opportunity to extend this model to all of Azusa to achieve the following key goals: • Improve the physical health, safety and appearance of the entire community • Build strong partnerships of neighbors, schools, businesses and city government working together to solve problems and promote progress • Coordinate the efforts of multiple departments, agencies and stakeholders to respond more quickly and more effectively We also need to address long-standing internal and external challenges to neighborhood improvement such as: • Deep social problems of poverty, gangs, slum conditions and overcrowding, particularly in our older multi-family housing • The erosion of community cohesion as the aging or departure of the long-time stable, home-owning, voting and volunteering population gives way to increasing numbers of new residents that have far weaker ties to Azusa • The all-too-frequent problem of complaints or projects getting lost or bogging down because there is not a well-coordinated way to ensure that tasks are handled to completion if they run into interdepartmental or interjurisdictional snags To help achieve the goals and overcome the challenges cited above, I'm recommending the following steps: • Through the General Plan process, establish distinct neighborhood districts throughout the city • Work to support neighborhood organizations in each of these districts • Assign a current city staff member to take on additional responsibility as Deputy to the City Manager for Neighborhood Improvement, putting the authority of the City Manager's office behind this effort • Coordinated by that deputy, create both a specific city staff team and a larger network of contacts and resources to coordinate a list of priority projects needing interdepartmental involvement • Establish direct Council liaison with one or two members to provide both oversight and support at the highest level • Creation of a Neighborhood Improvement Fund to provide matching capital resources and bridge financing for urgent priorities, including emergency abatements and small-scale physical improvement (with an initial capitalization of $250,000 provided by a payback of that amount of General Fund advances to Redevelopment) • Seek additional grant and sponsorship funding for ongoing activities and projects The goal is not to centralize, but to coordinate our citywide efforts (and partnerships) with neighborhoods and on Neighborhood Improvement problems and projects. Where problems can be solved without interdepartmental efforts, these efforts will continue as before. But where (as is increasingly is the case) a challenge initially encountered by Police or Code Enforcement or Public Works triggers the need for assistance or cooperation from others inside and outside of the City government, the Neighborhood Improvement Team and its larger network will coordinate these efforts. This team will also facilitate the process of extending the model of neighborhood self- organizing citywide. The General Plan process has identified a quarter-mile radius as the basic scale of a neighborhood (a theory bolstered by our NIZ experience.) By working to define and organize 20-30 neighborhood associations throughout Azusa, a powerful force can be mobilized for safety, advocacy and social bonds. Experience in many other cities show that such groups, with help, can over time transform neighborhoods by making them safer, more attractive and more cohesive. We have some building blocks already in place with both the NIZ experience and more than 20 homeowner associations required by condo covenants, conditions and restrictions. Again, experience has shown that these groups must have a broad focus and will interact with a wide range of city departments. The Police Department will play a key role in the safety component, along the lines of "neighborhood watch." The Community Development Department will be an important part of integrating local groups in zoning, planning and code enforcement decisions that affect their neighborhoods. Recreation and Parks can develop a more neighborhood focus to its parks and recreation programs. By coordinating these and other program/outreach efforts at the neighborhood level, the City can support the creation and growth of a new fabric of neighbors working together. Funding for this effort is critical, because our own experience (and that of the award-winning effort we have studied in the City of Paramount) indicates that positive small-scale improvements have tremendous return on investment. Pocket parks, landscaped vacant lots, clean-ups, demolitions and other swift actions can restore pride, mobilize jaded residents, encourage adjacent property owners and impress potential investors. To ensure this does not become an unwieldy bureaucracy or a black hole of time and money, I will emphasize in selecting the Deputy and putting together the team, individuals with a "can do" and "hands on" approach. We will also use technology to streamline communication and coordination. Finally, this is not a permanent new department. Like the "Neighborhood Improvement Zone" it is an innovative effort to change the way we do business, emphasizing partnership, focus and teamwork. FISCAL IMPACT Additional staff costs for Deputy assignment will be absorbed within the adopted budget. The Redevelopment Agency will repay $250,000 to provide funds for the start-up of the Neighborhood Improvement Fund. This will reduce the Redevelopment Agency reserves at the end of this fiscal year from $2,914,860 to $2,664,860. RESOLUTION NO. • A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AZUSA APPROVING APPROPRIATION AMENDMENTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2001 -2002 PURSUANT TO SECTION 2-450 OF THE AZUSA MUNICIPAL CODE WHEREAS, on June 1 I,2001 the City Council of the City of Azusa passed Resolution No. 0I-050 adopting the Budget and approving the appropriations for the City of Azusa for the fiscal year commencing July 1,2001 and ending June 30,2002;and WHEREAS, Section 2-450 of the Azusa Municipal Code provides for the amendment of said Budget, when required for the operation of the City and recommended by the City Manager; and WHEREAS, certain appropriation amendments are,in fact,required as detailed below: APPROPRIATIONS-OPERATIONS&MAINTENANCE GENERAL NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY $250,000 Net Effect $250,000 APPROPRIATIONS-CAPITAL PROJECTS CIP NEW LIBRARY-PHASE II $485,000 CIP GENERAL PLAN 265,000 Net Effect $750,000 NOW,THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Azusa does hereby approve the foregoing Budget amendments and orders the same to be recorded in the City's books of account and henceforth to be a part of said Budget as if adopted with the original thereof. ADOPTED and APPROVED this day of ,2001. MAYOR I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing resolution was duly adopted by the City Council of the City Azusa at a regular meeting thereof held on the day of , 2001. by the following vote of the Council: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: CITY CLERK q:\...resappr-01.wb2