Ring in the New Year by Planning a New Destination in your Neighborhood

It’s a new year and it’s time to think about what you can do to make your community a better place to live and to reflect back on how REALTORS® did just that.

“REALTORS® don’t only sell homes; they sell neighborhoods and communities. REALTORS® aid in improving and revitalizing neighborhoods with smart growth initiatives, helping create walkable, urban centers, which is what more Americans want in their neighborhoods.” Chris Polychron, Past President, National Association of REALTORS®

The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) looks at placemaking as inspiring people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Does your neighborhood have a heart, a center, where everyone meets, enjoys, and gathers?  If not, maybe it’s time to create one.

Courtesy of Corey Templeton - published on PPS.org

There are a variety of projects to become engaged in and some of our REALTOR® Associations have set great examples.

And NAR is here to help with funding. NAR’s Placemaking and Smart Growth grants are available to our state and local REALTOR® Associations to partner with others in their communities to build better communities whether that be to create new public spaces or to advocate for public policies that impact the built environment.

The Placemaking Grant(link is external) funds the creation of new public spaces and destinations. Think pocket parks, trails, gardens, plazas, dog parks, play areas, alley activations. It could also be used to implement some of the ideas from the community input from the projects funded by the Smart Growth Grant which funds the engagement in local land-use/transportation policy issues.

Using our Placemaking Grant and funding from the St. Louis REALTORS® Foundation, the St. Louis REALTORS® (MO) transformed a vacant piece of land within the St. Louis Greater Ville neighborhood into a community park. REALTORS® lent a helping hand to help assemble new benches, plant flowers, and shrubs, construct wooden privacy fences, and much more. The new park is now completed and includes urban gardens, flower boxes, and handicap-accessible walkways and is a perfect welcoming destination for the whole community. St. Louis City Community Park: A celebration of a special neighborhood and the REALTOR® spirit(link is external).

Photos courtesy of the St. Louis REALTORS®

Or how about buying the land on which to build a project. That’s just what a REALTOR® did. When she bought her home, she also purchased an empty lot next door with the vision to transform it into a garden everyone could use. That space is now a place for the whole community to enjoy as they can come to visit and relax in the garden. Read how this came about and how REALTORS® from MIBOR (IN) pitched in to help plant trees, spread mulch, tend to the grow beds, build a tool shed, and help set up an urban chicken coop.  How a REALTOR® is Helping to Change a Neighborhood in Indianapolis(link is external).

Photos courtesy of the MIBOR REALTOR® Association

And sometimes you may need to take a boat to help a community out. The Coastal Association of REALTORS® (MD) helped build an island’s only park on a vacant, abandoned lot currently owned by the local fire department. REALTORS® and association staff members traveled to Smith Island, which lies in the Chesapeake Bay, by boat to set up picnic tables, benches, a bicycle rack, trash receptacles, and landscaping that can stand up to sometimes rough island conditions. The project served to greatly extend the REALTORS® outreach and overall goals as the association of providing opportunities for members to give back to their communities.  REALTORS® Bring an Island its First Park. (link is external)

Photos courtesy of the Coastal Association of REALTORS®.

There are more of these great stories, as well as other placemaking project ideas, on this blog. So check them out.

And don’t forget about the Smart Growth Action Grant(link is external) which can be used to set the stage for what a community wants and how it shows growth and development.  This can include organizing a workshop to make a community more walkable; sponsoring a charrette to get community input for large-scale projects; coordinating a downtown assessment to identify and address a community’s assets and challenges; and planning a Better Block event to imagine what could be.

For example, the Maine Association of REALTORS® used a Smart Growth Action Grant to sponsor a three-day charrette, in which all stakeholders had an opportunity to contribute ideas for new downtown development. During a “Listening Session”, residents expressed their support for the creation of public green spaces and greenways and one design option included plans for a bike trail and park.

Courtesy of the Maine Association of REALTORS®

And in Miami, the Miami REALTORS® came across an abandoned building with a blank wall overlooking an overgrown green space that seemed ripe with potential. They decided to organize a Better Block to help visualize what that space could be turned into. The project was the new ‘MKTPlace at Goombay Plaza’ which showcased Bahamian food, reggae music, dancing, and a dramatic light show and now every Saturday, local vendors now have a place to sell their wares and perpetuate the beloved local Bahamian culture. The Goombay Plaza project, a great success, raised critical awareness that REALTORS® care, and is very involved in the growth of their communities.

Photo courtesy of the Miami REALTORS®