Opportunities for Community Engagement

The Cramer Hill CDC in October of 2006 elected to secure technical assistance to enhance the ability of residents and stake holders of Cramer Hill to provide meaningful input into and be actively engaged in the preparation of redevelopment plans for the Cramer Hill area. A series of five facilitated meetings were held throughout the community from late October through November of 2006 to solicit issues, ideas, and understanding among Cramer Hill residents and institutions serving this community. Prior to the start-up of the meetings, the facilitator met separately with the local leadership of the CCOP and with the Cramer Hill Residents Association to outline the general purpose, agenda, and schedule for every meeting, and to hear concerns and issues they each had with respect to the City’s redevelopment plan.

Cramer Hill residents expressed several key issues and perspectives that have been integral to the CHCDC development planning process. In listening to the experiences and needs of the Cramer Hill residents several priorities and ideas were articulated and lead to creation of the “Opportunities for Community Engagement” which has been shared with the Camden Redevelopment Agency. Some of those priorities and issues were the:

o Need to create housing which is truly affordable to the residents of Cramer Hill
o De-concentration of low-income housing
o Permanent accessibility of any development along the waterfront
o Need for a revitalization / redevelopment balance with a focus on vacant lots and buildings
o Creation of a comprehensive equitable development strategy
o Investment focus on the existing business corridor
o Investment in community infrastructure
o Remediation of brownfields, and in particular the Harrison landfill
o Need for housing education and counseling services

These priorities and ideas were clearly articulated by residents during a presentation given at City of Camden’s Planning Department meeting on November 29th in Cramer Hill. While the community sessions and presentation mark major milestones in the planning process, also clearly voiced was the desire to have a process which is implemented in close collaboration with and in potential partnership with residents, merchants and institutions of Cramer Hill.

Key benchmarks of this partnership would be the development of work groups comprised of residents, and city representatives to work on issues identified by the community (such as affordable housing and economic development) and the progress and productivity of these work groups to assess the extent to which they reach their intended goals.

This work has not only changed the manner in which redevelopment plans are developed in Cramer Hill, but also have the opportunity of informing upon future redevelopment plans throughout the City of Camden.

A copy of the report is available at our website: www.cramerhillcdc.org