Images Courtesy of Camiros, Ltd.

Ellis Heights / Fairgrounds Choice Neighborhoods Plan

Rockford, Illinois

Client

Rockford Housing Authority

Description

The Ellis Heights Choice Neighborhoods Transformation Plan establishes a positive vision for the future that could be achieved by pursuing community-based initiatives that addressed infrastructure reinvestment, housing redevelopment, improved education opportunities, job creation, health and human services, and public safety. The Plan stresses coordination and integration with significant ongoing city and regional programs. It seeks to reorient the neighborhood from one of isolation into one strongly linked to Rockford’s economic engines.

results

• The first phase of mixed-income replacement housing has been completed

• A grocery store has been opened in the heart of the neighborhood

• The creation of a craft-based entrepreneurship training program through collaboration with Etsy.com

• A $2.5 million foreclosure mitigation grant from the IL Attorney General as part of the National Foreclosure Settlement

awards

• 2012 Community Outreach Award, American Planning Association, Illinois Chapter

• 2014 Implementation Award, American Planning Association, Illinois Chapter

Adam Rosa led this project as a Principal at Camiros, Ltd.