Five Wounds Brookwood Terrace 2007 Neighborhood Improvement Plan Amendment.

The main purpose of this project was to create a NIP Amendment to the 2002 NIP for the FWBT SNI neighborhood. The FWBT community was the first SNI neighborhood to renew its action agenda and create a NIP Amendment. Therefore, the consultant team – a collaboration between CommUniverCity San José and Public Vision Research team member Daniel Krause – was charged with creating a new community process for the NIP Amendment, implementing the process, and writing the NIP Amendment document.

The process created by the consultant team consisted of four community workshops, including one in the field at a mobile home park. In addition, a half-day retreat was held for the Neighborhood Advisory Committee.

The goals of this community process were twofold. The first goal was to assess the status of all the action items from the 2002 NIP. A complex matrix was developed to track levels of completion for each of these of these items. The second goal was to obtain a rich amount of input from the community to determine a new list of action items and have the community prioritize all them. Out of this prioritization list came the Top 10 items.

Another interesting aspect of this project was the inclusion of San Jose State graduate planning students from the Urban and Regional Planning Department. This component of the project provided learning through direct service to the community for the students. The consultant team managed this interaction as well.

The entire process was very successful and lead to creation of a handbook documenting the process created during the NIP Amendment.

Client: City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency, Strong Neighborhoods Initiative