The 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project has three levels of governance and community involvement:

Strategic Partners: Four non-profit organizations, which represent a depth of community development expertise and a demonstrated commitment to sustainable development, will have the ultimate decision-making authority for the project.

Steering Committee: Approximately 20 individuals who bring expertise, resources, and connections, will govern the day-to-day operations of the project and be intimately involved in all aspects of the project.

Community Advisory Committee: A broad-based community group will connect the project to a diversity of local organizations, interests, and constituencies, participate actively in community design workshops, and provide opportunities for ongoing community feedback as the project goes forward.

A redevelopment strategy with the vision and scope of the 79th Street Project requires all of these groups, working together, to bring it to fruition.

A. Strategic Partners

The 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project is led by four non-profit organizations that represent considerable expertise in community development:

The Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. is committed to enabling Blacks to cultivate their full potential through advocacy and service-delivery. To that end, the Urban League intervenes in social and economic structures where the interests of Blacks are at stake, as well as working within existing institutions to make them more responsive to the needs of Blacks in the community. Specialized programs or services in the education, housing, employment, community development, economic development, urban affairs, social welfare, and citizenship education are part of this organization's strategic plan to empower Blacks. In the arena of housing and community and economic development, the Urban League is involved in a variety of projects throughout Miami-Dade County, with its area of primary focus being Model City. The Sugar Hill Apartments rehabilitation, the construction and rehabilitation of Superior Manor Apartments, and the acquisition and renovation of the Northside Shopping Center are three projects the Urban League currently has underway.

Miami-Dade Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. provides affordable housing to low-income families. It presently is producing affordable housing as part of its "infill" housing development program. In addition MD-NHS makes low interest housing rehabilitation loans to local residents who are not qualified for conventional bank lending. It has an innovated homebuyer education assistance program in which first time homebuyers are walked through the process right up through the closing. A consortium of banks provide the conventional first mortgages to match the County's HOME or Surtax 2nd mortgage. Homebuyers are helped with the complex loan qualification process. MDNHS has started marketing these service to CDCs and other developers who find it attractive because it relieves them of the expense of providing these services in-house.

Dade Employment and Economic Development Corporation (DEEDCO) is a community economic development corporation that strives to improve the quality of life for all of Miami-Dade County's citizens. This non-profit developer services various target areas within Miami-Dade County through its many housing and economic development ventures. Two of its recently completed projects include the Olympia Office/Gusman Theatre Building and DEEDCO Gardens. DEEDCO is currently working to help redevelop the Brownsville Renaissance Center.

Center for Neighborhood Technology invents and implements tools and strategies for healthy urban communities. It seeks to achieve environmental improvement, economic growth, and community vitality simultaneously. The Center spearheads coalitions to change public policy, creates market-based mechanisms that build on community assets, and generates information that frames the public dialogue and promotes community participation. The Center's work is grounded in the Chicago region, it is national in scope.

The four strategic partners are responsible for the following functions, among others:

* Hiring of Project Director,

* Approval of budgets,

* Approval of contracts,

* Financial management,

* Coordination of funding efforts, and

* Selection of Steering Committee.

The relationship between the four strategic partners is memorialized in a Memorandum of Understanding that has been adopted by each of the four board of directors.

B. Steering Committee

The operational coordination of the nnn79th Street Project will be vested in a Steering Committee, which includes approximately 20 individuals with expertise and connections necessary to make the project work. The Steering Committee is responsible for:

* Management of the community participation process,

* Selection of members of the Community Advisory Committee,

* Involvement of other institutions, agencies, business etc. in the development process,

* Adoption of a Strategic Plan,

* Advocacy to government agencies, funding sources and others on behalf of the project,

* Oversight of work by consultants and partners,

* Fund raising for direct project costs,

* Mobilization of resources for all aspects of the project,

* Resolution of disputes among participants, and

* Other functions necessary to the success of the project.

The Steering Committee does not directly operate any of the components of the project. All operations are managed through "partnership agreements" with individuals and organizations negotiated by the Steering Committee. Through these partnership agreements, the Steering Committee ensures accountability to the overall plan. Members of the Steering Committee may be involved in operating one or more elements of the project, but may not vote on any partnership agreement to which they are a party.

C. Community Advisory Committee

To be successful, the revitalization of the 79th Street Corridor needs to flow from the gifts and talents of community residents and result in the empowerment of community residents. When the development program is complete, the community needs to have stronger institutions that can preserve and extend what has already been accomplished.

The 79th Street area already has many community institutions, from block clubs to churches to clubs and merchants associations. Although the conventional wisdom is that communities like 79th Street are devoid of institutions, inventories in similar communities have disclosed a wealth of organizations. A survey of Grand Boulevard, a low-income African-American community on Chicago's South Side, discovered, for example, that its 36,000 residents supported 319 different organizations.

Mobilizing this network of organizational capacity will be essential to the 79th Street Corridor Sustainable Development Project. To accomplish this, the project will convene a Community Advisory Committee that includes a broad cross section of community leadership. The Community Advisory Committee will be responsible for:

* Participation in Community Design Workshops,

* Advising the Steering Committee on plan development and implementation,

* Engaging many sectors of the community in the planning process, and

* Sponsoring periodic Town Meetings that would report to the community on the progress of the plan.

D. Collins Smart Growth Center

A "South Florida Smart Growth Center" is being launched as part of the Collins Center for Public Policy, which will provide leadership for sustainable development in the region. This new institution, under the leadership of Rod Petrey, a Partner in Holland and Knight and former Chair of Greater Miami Local Initiatives Support Corporation, will link the private, non-profit, and governmental sectors in strategies for smart growth.

The 79th Street Project has proposed to form a strategic partnership with the Smart Growth Center. Although the details of this relationship have yet to be worked out, the project expects to be adopted by the Smart Growth Center as a regional demonstration project.

E. Other Partners

The project will work closely with the Greater Miami Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Brownfields Initiative, Eastward Ho!, Empowerment Zones and other programs that are focused in the redevelopment of existing communities in South Florida.