After months of one-on-one interviews, focus groups, neighborhood meetings and data collection, a Quality of Life Plan for the Layton Boulevard West Neighborhoods of Silver City, Layton Park and Burnham Park is ready to be finalized.
According to Daniel Adams, neighborhood plan coordinator for Layton Boulevard West Neighbors (LBWN), the plan will focus on seven overlapping strategies: 1) neighborhood appearance; 2) community safety; 3) social engagement; 4) youth, education and leadership; 5) community identity; 6) healthy living; and 7) economic development. Also included will be 11 catalytic projects involving physical changes to the neighborhood; specific details on those projects have yet to be announced.
The final chance for community input came on Sept. 20, during a meeting at the Sacred Heart Center, 1545 S. Layton Blvd. Now all that remains is for organizers from LBWN, writer Lucia Luzano, graphic designers and representatives from the Zilber Family Foundation to finalize the goals and put them on paper.
Some parts of the plan, to be officially unveiled Nov. 3, are already being implemented, though most of the strategies will be initiated over the course of several years.
“We’ll be developing an implementation strategy over the next few months which will involve setting up a governance structure. The long-term strategy is for everything in the plan to be possible to implement within the next four or five years,” Adams said.
Planning for the Quality of Life Plan began in October 2010, when the Zilber Family Foundation selected Silver City, Layton Park and Burnham Park as the next Milwaukee neighborhoods to be revitalized as part of the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative (ZNI). The first two ZNI neighborhoods were Lindsay Heights and Clarke Square.
LBWN, a community organization serving the area, received a grant of $875,000 over four years from Zilber to create and implement a comprehensive community development plan with neighbors and other local partners.
Developing the plan involved more than 70 interviews with residents, nine focus groups, 18 workshops and eight months of meetings of the 14-member Plan Advisory Committee, half of whom are neighborhood residents, according to Adams.
“Layton Boulevard West residents were involved in the creation of this plan every step of the way,” Adams said.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
