URA FUNDS IMAGINE BUTTE FOR UPTOWN REVITALIZATION PLAN, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS and HIGH SCHOOLS PROJECT

Imagine Butte has been funded by the Urban Revitalization Agency of the Butte Silver Bow county government. A grant in the amount of $65,000 will be used to develop and conduct a collaboratively developed community housing needs assessment led by Imagine Butte. The assessment will focus on housing and potential housing investment within the URA district which is bounded on the south by Platinum Street, on the east by Arizona, and on the west by Washington Street.

For the purposes of developing neighborhood revitalization plans, Butte has been organized with three neighborhoods with boundaries defined by tax and census districts. The project will result in an economic restructuring analysis for the Uptown Neighborhood.

 

More than 14 organizations and agencies in Butte will join forces with Imagine Butte's master planning advisor to develop and implement a building-by-building survey to be filed in cooperation with the Butte-Silver Bow planning board's future actions. The survey will focus on owner plans and preferences in upcoming urban revitalization actions and plans for future growth.

The High Schools project is ready for immediate implementation with available volunteer power and student leadership.

What's Happening First?

The survey will be sent out to URA occupants and building owners followed by on-site evaluation of the housing stock and housing potential.

At the same time, Imagine Butte will conduct retail and service interviews of commercial tenants of Butte businesses. Questions in these interviews will include:

What are your plans for the future? Do you envision expansion along the lines of entertainment and historic district activities?

Based on the results from these interviews, Imagine Butte will draft an Uptown action plan for economic revitalization of retail trade for Butte.

Other on-going efforts will be to encourage groups and indivduals to adopt a home, lot, or other property on drive zones and the business loop to help improve the appearance and value of these properties for occupants, owners and the overall community.

The first success from this effort has been that the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth will adopt a home with the Habitat Neighborhood Partners Program.

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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY NEWS

For Immediate Release
For information, contact Barbara Miller 782-8145

BUTTE - Habitat for Humanity International in Americus, GA has announced that Butte has won $25,000 worth of infrastructure costs for the new Butte High Neighborhood revitalization project. The effort aims to upgrade the neighborhoods around Butte High with new self-help housing and exterior housing rehabiliation projects completed by neighbors working together with local civic groups and young people.

The funds will be used for infrastructure costs (water-sewer, utilities, earthwork) to develop land for construction of three new Habitat homes in the area around Butte High school to be started this year, including the Women Building a Legacy project at Dakota and Platinum.

Habitat builds simple, decent housing in partnership with families, who buy the homes for the cost of materials and supplies to complete the home. The families contribute more than 500 hours of sweat equity labor to build the homes.

The project is part of the new 21st Century Challenge of Habitat which asks communities to take the challenge of setting a date when poverty housing will be eliminated in our town, through collaborative action. Habitat is nearing completion on home number 12 in Butte, while two have been built in Dillon. The organization is joining forces to reach out to potential very low income homebuyers throughout Southwest Montana over the coming year.

Dillon recently received a $18,660 grant to purchase two building sites within the city limit for Habitat under the same effort. The funds were won in a competitive grant process under the federal SHOP program by the local Habitat affiliate's Butte chapter, with Barbara Miller, project director.

Last year, Habitat homeowners paid more than $11,000 in local property taxes in Butte alone, and contributed to the local community in many other ways as well. Overall, Habitat has invested more than $800,000 in Butte and is asking for volunteers to contribute to Butte's neighborhood revitalization efforts. The organization has requested community participation through neighborhood land available for low-income housing to encourage development of more self-help housing by collaborative partners during Habitat's next construction cycle. The Habitat affiliate's housing has won awards for energy efficiency and the Butte homes are considered to be the most efficient in the United States within the Habitat program.

The 21st Century Challenge has been joined with the IMAGINE BUTTE collaboration, which has more than 12 local civic, governmental, and private non-profit organizations working together to develop neighborhood revitalization plans that reflect the ideas of virtually every household in town. The first objective is to revitalize areas around Butte High and the drive zones up the hill to the high school and the historic urban district. The project will produce a comprehensive data set about the Butte area that will allow for community planning and priority setting about these issues, making meeting the 21st Century Challenge possible.