EASTON, Pa., – Plans to transform Easton’s West Ward are well underway to try and secure millions in federal funding to create new housing, parks and community centers.
For the past two years developers and architects have been working on neighborhood development proposals to submit to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant (CNIG).
The grant gives $30-$50 million to cities and towns around the country to re-develop neighborhoods by revitalizing distressed public or HUD-assisted housing. It will provide funds to build and fix up community parks, address public transportation and mobility challenges and bring educational programs to neighborhoods that may be lacking in sufficient offerings.
- West Ward Community Initiative planners and developers are finalizing neighborhood revitalization plans to submit to the HUD Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant
- The grant would award up to $50 million to cities that are in need of addressing public or HUD-assisted housing
- Plans are being submitted to HUD in early 2023 and winners of the grant will be announced in the fall
In September of 2020 the Greater Easton Development Partnership (GEDP), in collaboration with the Easton Housing Authority (EHA) and the City of Easton submitted and won a $450,000 HUD Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant. It gave the GEDP and partners the ability to create, plan and develop educational programs like early learning services and opportunities and conceptualize affordable housing in neighborhoods like the West Ward.
At a community meeting on Wednesday, leaders and organizers shared with roughly 40 West Ward residents and interested parties the proposed neighborhood and housing developments they’d build with the CNIG.
“Of that $30-50 million we can use 15% for our people projects, 15% for our neighborhood projects with the other percentage going to building houses,” said Adam Rosa of Collabo, a planning and design firm that’s working on the project.
He said the West Ward has roughly 9,700 residents and the project is estimated to cost roughly $40 million to complete.
Plans will be finalized and submitted to HUD for the implementation grant in early 2023. It’s a competitive process among 10 other cities, with about four or five cities nationwide receiving awards. Announcements of the winners are expected in the fall.
Traditionally, larger cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Camden, NJ, have won Choice Neighborhood grants. But Easton’s developers and planners have looked to Lewiston, ME, a town that won the 2022 grant round.
Lewiston is roughly the same size as Easton, though slightly bigger at about 36,000 residents to Easton’s 28,000. Attendees of the EHA and GEDP toured Lewiston to learn from and implement ideas from officials there. They found that Lewiston’s proposal included ways jobs could be created from the funding and have included it in their plans.
Collabo Planning + Design, development company Michaels and architectural firm Urban Practice have worked on concepts of what West Ward community and housing developments could look like.
Housing
Housing was the big ticket item at the community meeting.
Developers and architects have proposed three new mixed-income housing developments aimed at providing affordable housing units for families and seniors at Bushkill House on Locust St., N. Union St. and Elm Street Apartments.
The locations currently hold housing developments but Rosa said the new mixed-income unit dwellings will match and replace the numbers of homes one to one, so there will not reduce in housing units.
In total there will be over 160 apartments and townhomes if the project goes as planned. Units would consist of market rate apartments and affordable housing.
Tracey Scott, a senior designer at Urban Practice architecture, said design plans at N. Union, which currently holds 57 apartments, could receive additional units and keep the current basketball court and add a playground on site.
Bushkill House, a senior residence, currently has 48 units and could receive a community garden, gym and community center.
Scott said plans currently include garden style apartments, townhomes or a mix of styles that would be beneficial to seniors and families.
“Elm Street has really beautiful views so we want to capture that. It also has a playground that isn’t so safe, so we need to improve that,” Scott said.
At the forum Bushkill House resident Denise Thomas shared that she is interested in seeing plans include a potential grocery store or food market in or nearby the area. Thomas said as a senior and with disabilities it is hard for her to take the bus to stores like Walmart.
She said relying on rideshares can be costly and the LANTA bus system can take hours to get from her home to the shopping center, which is taxing and stressful when using public transport with a walker.
“I have waited over three hours for a bus,” Thomas said. “That’s one of the difficulties people who are having ability challenges are facing.”
Thomas also raised the prospect of adding medical centers and pharmacies to the area that would provide greater ease of access to daily needs.
Other residents said they wanted to ensure that new developments wouldn’t price out existing residents or raise the price of goods and services in the area.
Rosa said there are possibilities for partnerships with other programs and developers that could address some of these concerns and that plans include changes to the LANTA bus routes to operate on a loop that can help residents get around the neighborhood.
Education and the arts
Plans to revitalize the West Ward neighborhood also focus on developing programs for early educational initiatives and new programs for Easton High School.
Rosa said it could bring in arts programs from the Overtown Media & Arts Center that provide audio, radio and film training, print media workshops and senior computer mentorship to the area youth.
Overtown Media & Arts Center held workshops at the West Ward Market this summer and plans on continuing to provide art classes and projects for kids of the neighborhood.
While development and planning for a West Ward revitalization effort are nearly complete it will be a ways before things can be set in motion. If the West Ward doesn’t receive the HUD grant Rosa said there may still be something in the works.
“This is a community led process and it’s really focused on partnerships to achieve it,” Rosa said. “Even if we don't win the $40 million next year, we’re still committed to make this plan happen and make the project a success.”
