The Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities (PSC) Visits the City of Portland, ME

Representatives from HUD, EPA, DOT and FEMA visited Portland's India Street Neighborhood and afterwards sat down for a round-table discussion with City staff hosted by Mayor Michael Brennan and Acting City Manager Sheila Hill Christian. City staff presented the highlights of the India Street Neighborhood Plan (www.portlandmaine.gov/1114/India-Street) to the PSC, and then the group brainstormed ways the PSC might assist during plan implementation.

Representatives from HUD, EPA, DOT and FEMA visit Portland's India Street Neighborhood

The neighborhood was chosen as a Center of Opportunity Pilot Community by Sustain Southern Maine (SSM). SSM was a Greater Portland Council of Governments project that carried out a three-year regional planning process funded by the HUD Office of Economic Resilience's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant program. Alex Jaegerman, Planning Division Director, expressed his appreciation for SSM's work, saying in his 30 years in planning it was one of the first times a regional approach was taken and disparate planning efforts knitted together.

Portland volunteered the India Street Neighborhood to be examined with the idea of learning how to create vibrant, lively places positioned to attract the next generation of jobs and housing growth. The Sustain Southern Maine effort was catalytic in leveraging outside resources, and in forming a neighborhood association which together with City staff developed the Plan which is now being presented to City Boards.

For further information, visit HUD's Office of Economic Resilience and Partnership for Sustainable Communities (www.sustainablecommunities.gov/) websites.

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