The Development, Planning & Sustainability committee is responsible for matters related to the @CityofCleveland offices of Community Development, Building & Housing, and Consumer Affairs (among others).

The Development, Planning & Sustainability committee also deals with the city’s sustainability efforts 🌳 and oversees Cleveland's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program 💵

On this morning’s agenda: the committee will get an update on CDBG grant awards & review how much federal HUD money is allocated to each grant award area.

And there’s more! You can view the full agenda here: cleveland.documenters.org/documents/agen…

Here's a guide to reading @CleCityCouncil agendas, from the @cledocumenters team: documentcloud.org/documents/2052…

And here's another handy guide from the @cledocumenters team re: public comment at @CleCityCouncil meetings: cleveland.documenters.org/documents/publ…

Since @CleCityCouncil is discussing the allocation of ~$30 million for community programs, today's meeting seems like it'd be a great one to hear resident input! https://t.co/duWbsFkwAn

The meeting has started! Follow along here: youtube.com/watch?v=Cx6hxR… https://t.co/nQQMGfobWK

Hearing first about a plan to acquire a plot for a new mixed-use development project: https://t.co/p2Z4sFa5EI

@KerryMcCormack1 shared his support for the project (it's in his ward). He called it a connector between the Tremont and Clark-Fulton neighborhood. I think we're talking about this spot here: https://t.co/9lYECJ7wT4

Now the committee is hearing from Community Development Director Wackers about the budget allocation for community development programs. https://t.co/c6986CqHiA

Dir. Wackers sez the city budgeted conservatively. HUD awards are greater than the initially budgeted amounts https://t.co/wuQdEDB0Qq

Community Development staff and council are discussing budget allocations for Community Development Corporations.

@basheerj asks about the process for allocating the $511 million in federal American Rescue Plan money.

Sounds like that process won't be in place until Council approves a plan to spend the money https://t.co/XPPCi4fZ2y

Councilperson Basheer Jones says he's been getting inquiries from lots of community groups and non-profit agencies about how they can access some of the $511,000,000 in federal rescue plan funds.

Wants to be able to share good info back to those groups

@GriffWard6Cle asks about the ranking/scoring for Community Development Corporations. Says Burten, Bell, Carr expanded its service area and took on a lot more work.

Dir. Wackers says scoring is based on how many of their accomplishments they achieve https://t.co/2whfUPsRif

Burten, Bell, Carr was scored as the third highest-performing CDC. Their funding is staying flat.

Sounds like Councilperson Griffin is concerned that despite their high score & challenges of taking on more work, the process isn't supporting BBC as well as it could

Here's a tweet from @Jesstrivisonno from waaaay back in February that details how CDCs are scored/ranked on their accomplishments: twitter.com/Jesstrivisonno…

(a previous version of this tweet demonstrated my Twitter newbieness)

Because of the challenges of scoring/ranking CDCs, @KerryMcCormack1 says he'd like Council to discuss whether or not CDBG dollars are the right way to support CDCs for next year's budget

Councilperson Polensek also expresses his concerns w/ this process.

@HairstonCCC10 also expresses his concerns with the scoring processes ... asks about development projects/plans that are in progress but interrupted https://t.co/DmbCI7J0wJ

@ADayInTheSlife adds his concerns - wants to know if @CityofCleveland has compared its process for distributing federal CDBG money w/ other comparable cities https://t.co/6odKU0zxgv

The meeting adjourned at 10:35 am!

There was somewhere between 12-15 viewers on the YouTube stream throughout

This document didn't get discussed, but it's a rundown of the local programs that will be supported by ~$30 million in HUD funding: cityofcleveland.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M…

For what it's worth, I think hearing about these community-focused programs would've been more relevant to most folks than a deep dive into how CDCs are funded and rated by the city's development department.

hey since community gardens are part of community development - did you know that @NeighborUpCle has small grants for resident-led community garden and farmers market ideas?

Apply now thru June 15: neighborupcle.org/garden/

Thanks for reading along with me today. You can find all sorts of notes about past and upcoming local, public meetings from the @cledocumenters team at: cleveland.documenters.org

One last thing:
Have questions about this thread?
Think we got something wrong??
Send any enquiries on the meeting or these tweets to @cledocumenters or email #CLEDocumenters at lcaswell@neighborhoodgrants.org