During Monday’s city council work session, Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, and chair of the housing committee updated the council on what was said by JRC’s Mary Maxwell during the housing committee meeting. Screenshot courtesy of the City of Jamestown’s website

The Jamestown Renaissance Corporation is still working to get two of its new Renaissance Block Challenge areas up and running.

Mary Maxwell of the JRC made a presentation Monday to members of the City Council’s Housing Committee to discuss the block challenge, something the JRC has worked on for the past several years. Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5 and chair of the Housing Committee, told the council about what was discussed by Maxwell and the committee during their meeting earlier that night.

“She went through an explanation of the Renaissance Block Challenge Program and how it started back in 2011,” Reynolds said. “She is the only person assigned to this work and she handed out a cluster map, so there are maps available from her office, and I guess you can get them online as well.”

According to the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation’s website, the Renaissance Block Challenge is a neighborhood revitalization program that encourages groups of neighbors to collaborate on exterior curb appeal beautification improvements to their properties in order to build confidence in Jamestown’s neighborhoods and inspire others to reinvest. The program was created to encourage property owners to invest in their properties, and by doing so build stronger neighborhoods.

The JRC’s program includes a dollar for dollar match up to $3,000, Reynolds said, so if a homeowner spends $6,000 on a project the idea would be for them to get reimbursed for up to half of that through this program. Today there have been 60 groups and over 725 property owners and over $2 million invested into this work.

“Going forward, she has singled out four different areas, two of them were up and getting running, and two were for future use,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds outlined two areas discussed during the meeting on the north and south, specifically Allen Park, side of the city. He said there was a hand out showing some of the sponsors for this program as well.

“The North Side target area is huge, at least it was when it was populated by somebody who came in and apprised all of the neighborhoods of 1500 programs and she told the folks that are helping to put this together that she tried to do 300 a year,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds noted the color coding on the map that was given to them by Maxwell, saying that it was an interesting map to look at. Additionally, the total investment for the North Side target area is $518,000. Reynolds said there is a property owner investment of over 65% and JRC investment of around 35%.

The next phase of this JRC program has 127 homes lined up for it.

“So she’s hoping to get phase two more concrete and up to speed, along with getting ready to do a third area of that north side,” Reynolds said. “It was quite informative and she’s opened up her office to any questions if anybody has any further questions.”