SPRINGFIELD ENGAGED NEIGHBORHOOD PLAn
Helping a legacy city find and leverage assets upon which to build a bright future for all
Springfield, Ohio is a classic industrial legacy city of the Midwestern United States. Many manufacturing jobs vanished over the past few decades leaving far too much vacancy behind. For years afterward, the Great Recession placed additional stress on the city’s citizens and institutions, and forced the City government to provide only basic services. For key neighborhoods, even ones with historic assets like the South Fountain Historic District, planning for the future was considered an unaffordable luxury.
But Springfield’s citizens are proud, resilient, and smart. They realized planning a neighborhood’s future is a wise investment. If left unplanned, the future a city receives is not steered and probably not bright; good fortunes are rare because hope and luck are not really courses of action. The Springfield Engaged Neighborhood Plan provides the neighborhood with a vision for achievements to seek and a list of tasks which must be accomplished in order to reach them.
CUDA Studio joined forces with Urban Fast Forward to provide the City of Springfield with its first neighborhood plan in decades. Our focus was to figure out ways to rebuild the south side of the city for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Springfield’s south side has significant deficiencies such as a 40% vacancy rate, deteriorating streets and sidewalks, and oppressively low property values. But it also has assets (some apparent and some hidden). The Springfield Engaged Neighborhood Plan discovers, promotes and builds on those assets. The Plan also transforms street corridors into pedestrian-friendly places and fertile ground for investment.
CUDA Studio created an efficient planning process which included numerous stakeholder interviews, public workshops, and many one-on-one interviews. Through this process, the neighborhood was able to agree on the community’s strengths and address weaknesses head-on.
The Plan reveals hidden gems that can be leveraged to build a bright, vibrant future. It also addresses city policies, preferred real estate development, improvements to infrastructure, the creation of great public places, and the establishment of civic organizations so residents – all residents – become emotionally invested partners in the neighborhood’s future and growth. Each initiative outlines the ultimate goals for which the community should strive as well as short-term steps that can be taken to stir morale and establish transformational momentum.
The gemstone of the Engaged Neighborhood Plan is the celebration and leveraging of a previously hidden asset: The Gammon House. The Gammon House is one of only a few stops on the Underground Railroad that was owned by African Americans. The modest size of the house, and its placement on a small service street, are what helped escaping slaves hide on their way to freedom. Unfortunately those aspects have kept the Gammon House out of sight and out of mind for many decades. Fortunately a small group of citizens had been working to restore the Gammon House as a museum. Their vision for the Gammon House as a place not only for the observance of history but also a place for the celebration of peace, justice, and harmony, needed a boost. CUDA Studio developed an urban design plan to convert vacant property in front of the Gammon House into a multi-use park and improve the adjacent street intersection. Gammon Square will elevate this portion of the neighborhood to a destination for tourists and school children, and will become a place worthy of pride for generations.
