Creating Communities of Choice: Stakeholder Participation in Community Planning

Joan Marshall Wesley and Ester L. Ainsworth
Additional contact information
Joan Marshall Wesley: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39211, USA
Ester L. Ainsworth: Zoning Administrator, City of Jackson, Jackson, MS 39211, USA

Societies, 2018, vol. 8, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: Community stakeholders can be valuable allies to city officials engaged in downtown regeneration and community planning. This project highlights the force of engaging such allies in planning initiatives. It focuses on a long-neglected community that was once a thriving African American cultural and commercial hub. Organized as a city-university collaborative, the project brought together a cadre of community stakeholders: a planning studio professor and graduate students; a professional planner; architects; preservationists; and area residents, business owners and community leaders. Stakeholders held several meetings to evaluate the overall needs of the area, discuss options that would allow the concurrency of neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation and commercial economic interests while adhering to existing design guidelines. The group’s work culminated in a proposed land use plan that is sensitive to the needs of families, businesses and the city’s revitalization efforts. The plan calls for creating built spaces that complement the natural environment and encourages integrating green initiatives with regenerative efforts. It proposes creating active parks; cultural, arts and entertainment districts; and zoning that allows for single and multifamily housing. It transforms the district into one that is mixed-use, economically viable, family-oriented and preserves the area’s authentically historic and cultural assets.

Keywords: stakeholder participation; revitalization; university-city partnership; community planning; African American community; historic districts; preservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/73/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/73/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:73-:d:166940

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().