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

Cramer Hill Community Planning Meetings

The Cramer Hill Community Benefits Committee has elected to secure technical assistance to enhance the ability of residents and other stakeholders of the Cramer Hill neighborhood of Camden, NJ to provide meaningful input into and be actively engaged in the preparation of redevelopment plans for the area. These services will be provided by Lamar Wilson Associates. The purpose of his services is to assist residents and stakeholders in creating a document to present to the Camden Redevelopment Agency that codifies input for the eventual redevelopment plan for Cramer Hill. CHCDC and the Cramer Hill community will use this document to help define the range of community benefits that the redevelopment plan will present to existing residents, merchants and institutions of the Cramer Hill. This work will be completed in three phases.


Phase One Tasks:

• Data Collection/Information Gathering

• Meet and coordinate with The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) to review existing data and information describing specific demographic, economic and market conditions and trends impacting Cramer Hill.

Phase Two Tasks

• Meet and coordinate with Interface Studio to use and map the above-referenced data to identify specific redevelopment /reinvestment challenges, themes, or opportunities that should be addressed by the redevelopment plans for Cramer Hill as authorized through the CRA.


• Facilitate four separate meetings involving residents and other community stakeholders of Cramer Hill to:

o present findings/ideas generated from Phase One
o review finings/ideas generate from Interface Studio’s analysis of land use information
o discuss redevelopment needs, community priorities, and reinvestment opportunities



• Use the results of these meetings to identify and give priority ranking to direct and indirect benefits that redevelopment of Cramer Hill should (based on results from all of the above steps) provide to residents, merchants and institutions of the community.

• Prepare memoranda highlighting comments, concerns, questions, and ideas discussed at each meeting, and one memorandum highlighting common views and recommendations and their implications for principles and practices of community input that CHCDC will eventually convey to CRA.

• Facilitate one community-wide, town hall type meeting of residents and other community stakeholders of Cramer Hill to:

o present findings/ideas generated from four smaller neighborhood meetings
o review land use information and redevelopment needs, priorities, and opportunities
o generate consensus on community benefit goals to be presented to CRA

Phase Three Tasks: Community Input/Benefits Codified

• Prepare a report codifying community input for the Cramer Hill Redevelopment plan, that includes a framework outlining the basis for and range of community benefits by category – direct and indirect – the actual redevelopment of the community should generate for existing residents, merchants and institutions.

Nueva Vida Groundbreaking

The Cramer Hill Community Development Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony in Camden. The Nueva Vida Homes, 14 in total, are the first homes to be built in Cramer Hill since the introduction of the redevelopment of the mostly Latino area of Camden. This housing initiative is the first 14 homes of 250 homes the Cramer Hill CDC will build over the next 5 years in Cramer Hill.

The amenities of the fourteen homes include: three bedrooms, one to two and a half baths, a full basement and an attic with storage capacity, front rear porches, parking pad on site, and twill be Energy Star. The homes were designed by Wallace Roberts and Todd, and will be built by a local minority General Contractor, Arline Construction Service LLC.

The 14 for sale homes range in price from $98,000 for twins and $125,000 for corner single lots. Eight of the homes have been pre-sold prior to construction. This indicates to me very clearly the need for affordable options in homeownership in Cramer Hill. The homes will be completed in June 2007.

Our fundamental goal is to insure that everyone has an opportunity to live in Cramer Hill. Affordable homeownership is the cornerstone of our strategy, and this represent the CDC first efforts toward acheiving the goal of construting 250 homes over the next five years.

If you are interested in purchasing one of the Nueva Vida Homes please contact Mariza at 856-964-2465.

Community meeting

Last night the Cramer Hill CDC held a community meeting at Faith Holy Temple (27th and River Road). A total of 22 community residents and stakeholders braved the rains last night to attend. The following items were discussed at the meeting:

1) The hiring of a nuetral facilitator. This facilitator would hold meetings between the CDC, the Cramer Hill Residents Association and Camden Churches Organized for People. The group has put together a Request For Qualifications to help make the selection of a facilitator. The nuetral facilitator will be hired by next Friday, September 8th.

2) An update was given on the letter written to Randy Primas, signed by the Cramer Hill Residents Association, CCOP, and the CDC to request a postponement of community engagement meetings by one month and seeking clarity on the purpose of each scheduled meeting. The City of Camden's Department of Development and Planning responded to the letter agreeing to postpone the meetings by one month and assuring that there will be clarity on the agenda for each meeting. A group will schedule a meeting with Mr. De in order to seek written clarity on meeting dates and agenda.

As we have agreed to do in the past the second part of the meeting was held in order to continue the Commmunity Benefits discussions over the past year.

At this meeting the following was discussed and agreed to:

1) There is an opportunty to have a peer-to-peer exchange with a group from Colorado who has negotiated a community benefits agreement with Cherokee. The peer-to-peer would assist Cramer Hill residents to learn how the agreement was made, what Cherokee was willing to give, and how the agreement was formalized. This is an opportunty to learn the how, what and why of a community benefits agreement. It was agreed that the groups should form a committee to go to Colorado and meet with this group in late October or early November. A letter will be written to a funder to seek support and facilitation of the meeting.

2) An introduction of the New Jersey Regional Coalition was given. The Coalition looks to provide affordable housing, mostly rental, in areas throughout the region. The group will create a committee to visit an affordable housing development in Mt. Laurel.

3) Those present agreed to have further community meetings in four locations of Cramer Hill in order to increase participation and begin discussion on land use and redevelopment. Dates for these meeting will be created in thecoming weeks, with the first meeting occuring as early as late September.

4) A discussion was held on the Relocation Process and an educational series of meetings that inform residents of their rights. These meetings will bring in experts that will disuss the issue.

As you can see alot of items were discussed and there is a large group working together to protect the interest of Cramer Hill Residents. Your voice in this process is equallly as important. If you have not attended a meeting or have stopped coming to the meetings for any reason, we invite you to come back. Your input an assistance is greatly needed.

The Cramer Hill CDC will hold a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction for 14 new homes within Cramer Hill. The groundbreaking will take place on September 8th at 11:00a.m., on the vacant lot at 24th and River Road (behind the ice cream shop). The homes will be built on existing vacant lots owned by the CDC. Six of the fourteen homes are still available for sale. Homes include: Living room, dining room, kitchen and family room. Three bedroooms, and 1 & 1/2 baths; full basements and attics with storage capacity; front and rear porches; parking pad on site; and central air condition. You can alos customize your home with many options. Homes start at $98,175.00. For more information call Mariza at 856-964-2465.

Cramer Hill Community Meetings

Together with the Cramer Hill Residents Association and Camden Churches Organized for People, the CHCDC has requested and recieved a one month postponement to the Civic Engagement Meetings. The first meeting will be held on October 4th, 2006. We are awaiting a schedule for the remaining meetings. We encourage all Cramer Hill Residents and Stakeholders to attend these meetings. More to come.....