The Community Planning & Development Department (CPD) is pleased to announce the A+ Neighborhoods initiative, which is aimed at strengthening and improving all neighborhoods in Kalamazoo. 

The initiative has four basic components:

1.  Improving Our Homes & Our Neighborhoods
     Focuses on beautifying neighborhoods, eliminating blight, and improving housing stock.

2.  A Home for You in Kalamazoo
    Creating incentives to encourage new home construction, home improvement and home purchases in the City of Kalamazoo.

3.  Shaping Our Neighborhoods’ Futures
    Developing neighborhood revitalization strategies which spell out measurable outcomes, responsibilities and resources.

4.  A New Model for Sustainability
    Seeking and obtaining new resources for neighborhood sustainability.

Why A+ Neighborhoods?

In just the last five years, the City has seen its share of annual federal funds for community development work shrink by approximately $1,000,000.  Our core neighborhoods continue to struggle with poverty and unemployment rates higher than the area’s averages, and aging housing stock, which brings its own set of challenges. Blighted and vacant houses continue to be an issue within the city.

At the same time, our residents and neighborhood leaders have continuously shown a willing spirit to make their neighborhoods and the city a better place.  Coupled with the tremendous opportunity of the Kalamazoo Promise, the City must find a new way to take advantage of these assets and look at community development in a whole new light.

The A+ Neighborhoods initiative seeks to take immediate, measurable steps to improve the overall quality of life in the neighborhoods and to also help families become homeowners in Kalamazoo.  And it looks forward… it recognizes that for neighborhoods to prosper there needs to be clear direction to achieve measurable results.  This will entail  additional neighborhood revitalization training for neighborhood practitioners.