As part of its efforts to reduce poverty while promoting growth and long-term stability for residents, the Joliet City Council Tuesday amended its contract for the Bicentennial Bluffs Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Plan with Borderless Studio in Chicago.

The initial contract with the Chicago firm was for $308,880.  The City of Joliet and the Housing Authority of Joliet are in the process of creating the Bicentennial Bluffs Transformation Plan, which is a proposed comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy program.

The amendment the council approved Tuesday is for an additional $30,000, which includes Phase 1 market analysis to be completed no later than May of this year and Phase 2 market strategy to finish no later than August 2026. The planning area, according to city officials, contains a high concentration of “low and very low-income households relative to the region.” 

The entire project is being funded by a grant from the federal Housing and Urban Development, according to City Manager Beth Beatty.

“The consultant will conduct an analysis of perceptions and attitudes about the planning area in order to determine if and how these perceptions may limit the area’s development potential,” according to project guidelines. ”  

The market analysis and market strategy will also outline obstacles to affordable housing under current market conditions, and offer suggestions to rectify any imbalances to achieve a mixed-income neighborhood, according to city officials.

Once Borderless Studio completes the comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plan with assistance from the community, it will create new affordable housing, preserve housing in the surrounding neighborhood and develop a mixed-use and mixed-income community, which reduces the concentration of poverty, according to program guidelines.

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant application targets the distressed 356-unit public housing development of Riverwalk Homes and the 170-unit public housing development of Heritage Place apartments, both operated by the Housing Authority of Joliet.

The Bicentennial Bluffs Neighborhood is bounded by by Theodore Street on the north, Raynor Street on the west, Collins Street on the east and McDonough street on the south.

In other news, the City Council also adopted a resolution approving an honorary street name designation for Michael Austin Clark Way on Glenwood Avenue between Hammes and Larkin avenues.