The making of a great neighborhood plan

So how did the City of South Miami’s Hometown Plan that led to investment in model development happen?

It began in 1992, when South Miami Hometown, Inc., a nonprofit, was established by local visionaries that raised funds to create a blueprint for an uninspired 55-acre area in the city, with the cooperation and matching funds of the City. Through a charrette process that involved key business associations (very important), government agencies, nonprofits and citizens facilitated by Dover Kohl, the group produced a blueprint that laid out the streets, parking, building forms/heights, mixed-uses and public places that would transform the area into a beautyful pedestrian-oriented urban village. None of this would have really mattered if the City wasn’t going to legislate the results of the November charrette…

In February 1993, the Hometown Plan for downtown South Miami was adopted in principle by the City Commission, followed by the official creation of the Hometown District in October 1993, coupled with a graphic-based code that illustrated the results of the charrette into city law. Cool huh? Two years later the citizens and City took on an even larger area with the same approach, Hometown Too. See how this works?

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