DDA board urged to prioritize blight, review multi-year master plan and pursue grants

Members resumed review of the DDA master plan and discussed how to turn the document into an actionable workplan. The board was reminded that the detailed 3-, 5- and 10-year breakdown was available online and had been previously distributed; one member said the full plan would have made the packet excessively long and recommended members retrieve it from the DDA website.

Several members argued the board should start with blight mitigation as the most actionable near-term area. “Let's get on blight first,” one member said, noting the plan’s early items on sidewalks, lighting and consistent signage. Members recommended working closely with the township’s ordinance officer to enforce codes and to identify properties that could qualify for repair grants.

A speaker described a community-wide repair grant the township is pursuing, administered through a community development partner, that could total more than $500,000 and target low-income qualifying households; the township will pay administrative fees for a program that would help homeowners cover repairs. The same speaker said the township is hiring a second ordinance officer to improve enforcement capacity.

Board members proposed a homework strategy: each member should read the plan, identify their top priorities and then compare notes at the next meeting to create a consensus list of starting projects. The planning-commission approach of splitting complex documents into accountable sections was cited as a model.

No formal changes to the master plan were adopted in the excerpted discussion. Members asked staff to provide printed copies on request and to help surface the more detailed plan materials online for full review before the next meeting.