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November 19, 2009

City outlines 5-year plan for federal grant money

By Jesse Davis

With great funding comes great reporting responsibility.

Each year, the city must put together a plan for its use of federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

The CDBG program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, provides annual formula-based funding to entitled cities and counties for community development through approved use on such efforts as property acquisition and disposition, public facilities and improvements, clearance activities, public services and housing rehabilitation and preservation.

This year, however, brings with it additional requirements.

“Every five years, we’re required to do a five-year plan which kind of outlines the overall CDBG goals and specific activities that will be undertaken,” said Planning and Zoning Assistant Administrator Rhonda Yoder. “The theory is, for a five-year plan you should have quite a bit more input than you have for your annual plan.”

Public input

That input will include suggestions from school administrators, city personnel, elected officials, service organizations, neighborhood associations and community leaders as well as interested residents and applicants for funding, to be collected over the next few months.

The first of several meetings to be held as part of that information gathering took place Wednesday afternoon when Yoder and a small handful of others began discussing which of Goshen’s needs can be addressed over the next five years.

“I’ve been doing work on my own, collecting data and talking to people,” Yoder said. “One of the other things I did was e-mail a housing questionnaire to people, so I’ve been getting input and feedback other ways than just meetings, but this was the first official meeting for the five-year planning process.”

The city has a Citizen Participation Plan, revised in May of this year, to ensure proper opportunities for all affected and interested parties to share their voice in the process. The plan lists public hearings, program planning hearings, plan/program review hearings and performance assessments as necessary parts.

Along with those options for input, documents are available for public review — as they are created — at public agencies including the Goshen Housing Authority and are posted on the city Web site.

Planning challenges

As Yoder and others get into the meat of the planning phase for the 2010-2014 cycle, she said there is a unique difficulty to face.

“Our census data is about 10 years old and it doesn’t really reflect our current situation very accurately,” Yoder said. “But the new census data won’t come out for another year or two, based on the 2010 census. That’s one of the challenges, to get accurate information to base decisions on.”

The current state of the economy also poses its own challenges.

“There’s a lot more need,” she said, “and we don’t have adequate funding to respond to all the needs there are.”

Upcoming meetings

Yoder expects to hold meetings with the city’s neighborhood associations over the next couple of months, and a public hearing for program priorities is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2010, at 3 p.m. in the conference room of the Municipal Annex Building, 204 E. Jefferson St. At 4 p.m., there will be a public services grant application meeting that is mandatory for all potential grant applicants.

A draft of the plan will be available in March or April, followed by a 30-day public comment period.

More information about the program is available on the city’s Web site, www.ci.goshen.in.us, by clicking the “Planning/Zoning” link on the left side of the page and then clicking “CDBG.”

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