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On Wednesday, city officials kicked off a Crowdsourced Placemaking process with the launch of New Rochelle Future, a website that will serve as the hub of information regarding the redevelopment as the project plays out.
According to officials with the project, “Crowdsourced Placemaking is the act of taking a project traditionally performed by an institution and outsourcing it to a larger, committed community with shared values, in the form of an open call, resulting in a collaborative transformation of disinvested areas into places of the soul that uplift and connect us one another.”
By reaching out to those most invested in the community, local home owners will have the opportunity to share insights and ideas about downtown and the redevelopment, both online and in person during workshops, forums and at the developer’s downtown informational office that soon will open.
Last year, the New Rochelle City Council unanimously voted to undergo a radical downtown, transit-oriented redevelopment centered on the Metro-North train station. Since being chosen as master developers, officials with RDRXR – a collaboration between Renaissance Downtowns and RXR Realty – have hit the ground running and actively have sought public opinion.
Donald Monti, chief executive officer of Renaissance Downtowns, pledged to work collaboratively with home owners and business owners as they begin the process of redevelopment.
“In addition to seeking input from the communities about their ideas and what they’d like, we want to get input from property owners and the business community,” he said. “We encourage everyone to become involved in an open and transparent process, and through that, you will start to see the shaping of a plan.”
The redevelopment will focus on embracing the arts and New Rochelle’s cultural past, including a new library, cultural arts center, garden atrium and outdoor amphitheater around Ruby Dee Park. The train station also would undergo a radical transformation as well, making it “a door to the community, serving as a bridge to the past as well as the future.”
“Through Crowdsourced Placemaking, every resident of New Rochelle will have a chance to suggest ideas, react to the ideas of others and help shape a more vital, vibrant, healthy downtown,” Mayor Noam Bramson said. “(Residents) can register on the website and then attend presentations, meet-ups and other gatherings. All of us, working together as a community, can make the most of this exciting opportunity.”
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