Creating a branding and identity campaign for Fondren, establishing a small business incubator and encouraging residents and businesses to put up bottle trees.
That’s all recommended as part of Fondren Forward, a plan for the Fondren business district and neighborhood that was recently shared with the public.
“We spent most of the calendar year working on this,” said Blake Reeves, project manager for Fondren Forward. He grew up in Jackson, now lives in Atlanta and works as the discipline leader for city planning and urban design for City Collective, the business that took the input provided and came up with the plan to move the neighborhood forward.
Fondren has a population of about 6,000 and “close to one in two residents” engaged with the planning process either in person or online, he said.
The plan, which grew out of a series of neighborhood meetings and web interactions, guidance from a steering committee and collaboration with city and state leaders, includes almost 40 action steps.
Some of the ideas in the action steps are near completion but awaiting a final round of community feedback before they become “the marching orders for Fondren,” Reeves said.
Some of the steps are projects that can be done in the next year or so and others will take multiple years to accomplish, Reeves said.
Sandy Carter, a Fondren resident and a retired Trustmark Bank employee, led the fundraising that made it possible for the Fondren Renaissance Foundation to hire City Collective to produce the plan.
The plan has been well received, Reeves said. “While we heard small tweaks such as ‘Make sure you’re talking to so-and-so,’ we didn’t hear pushback against the actions,” he said.
The plan is aspirational and could take 10 to 20 years to fully implement, Reeves said. Funding remains to be determined for the expensive parts of the plan.
Attracting small businesses and helping them grow as well as efforts to boost the arts in Fondren with an artist-in-residence program and increase art in public spaces are part of the plan. So are efforts to create a branding and identity campaign for the neighborhood and to hire an employee to market and promote the area.
Collaboration with the city on zoning issues, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to expand the existing Historic District and Jackson State University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center to develop a master plan for Veterans Memorial Stadium are also part of the master plan.
The establishment of new parks plus a central green space for events is also in the plan. A green space would help “create some of the energy that exists at the Belhaven Town Center where people can linger and kids can play,” Reeves said.
Jackson Watkins, a Fondren resident and member of the Fondren Business Improvement Board of Directors, likes the various placemaking efforts the plan suggests such as a central green space for socializing and events.
He believes the plan is the shot in the arm the neighborhood needs, and he understands the need for new branding to promote Fondren so that developers who don’t know the area will have information that they can use to learn more about it. He also likes the idea of unifying the various organizations that care about the neighborhood.
Everyday citizens, not just neighborhood insiders, had opportunities to share their opinions and that was helpful when the plan was being conceived, Watkins said. “They did a good idea of giving people the opportunity to talk,” he said.
Some of the action steps include:
- Re-organize Fondren’s neighborhood entities, including the Fondren Renaissance Foundation, to create a streamlined and effective framework to drive community goals.
- Adopt a pro-active strategy to attract small businesses to the neighborhood that align with its character and values and help ensure long-term economic sustainability.
- Collaborate with the Mississippi Department of Archives & History and expand the boundaries of the existing Historic District.
- Update zoning regulations in collaboration with the city of Jackson so they better align with its goals for character, density and pedestrian-friendly design.
- Establish enforceable design standards that focus on Fondren’s visual and experiential qualities and a Development Review Committee to enforce them.
- Dedicate 1 percent of public and private construction budgets to public art in Fondren’s public spaces.
- Hire a facilities and security manager to be responsible for the maintenance of Fondren’s public spaces and upkeep of public art and infrastructure.
- Create and hire a marketing, programming and public relations position to elevate Fondren’s profile and support its cultural and community initiatives.
- Establish an economic development position to guide Fondren’s growth, attract investments and strengthen its local economy.
- Create a Community Development Entity (CDE) to proactively address blight, counter displacement, promote affordability and guide development in Fondren to ensure it aligns with the neighborhood goals. The CDE’s primary function would be to acquire, manage and redevelop underutilized or neglected properties.
- Establish a Business Improvement District for North Fondren, which would connect and coordinate business owners, property owners and others in the area.
- Work with the city of Jackson to enhance code enforcement and address property neglect, safety violations and aesthetic inconsistencies.
- Organize a public art program to enrich Fondren’s cultural landscape and reinforce its identity as a hub for creativity and artistic expression.
- Celebrate and support artists by establishing an artist-in-residence program.
- Develop a comprehensive strategy to fully leverage Fondren’s designation as a Leisure and Recreation District. Authorized by state legislation in 2016 and often called the “Go Cup” policy, this option allows municipalities to designate areas where patrons can legally consume alcoholic beverages outside licensed premises.
- Establish a district-wide facilities strategy to position the neighborhood as a premier destination for conventions, conferences and events, leveraging the existing venues and spaces and collaborating with Visit Jackson.
- Develop a district parking strategy to coordinate parking needs across the Fondren commercial district, including shared parking coordination with churches that have large lots often empty during the week and employee parking management so that employees park in areas far from businesses,
- Establish a community center to serve as a hub for civic, cultural and recreational activities.
- Build a modern library in Fondren to provide educational and digital resources.
- Establish a civic market or farmer’s market to highlight local food and goods.
- Develop a central green space to support social interaction and events.
- Create a shared park space for non-school day use in collaboration with Boyd Elementary on portions of the school’s property.
- Develop a central park on Eubanks Creek to address flooding and provide recreation.
- Uncover sections of Eubanks Creek beneath I-55 to restore the creek’s natural flow and enable development of a multi-use trail system that would connect Fondren directly to LeFleur’s Bluff State Park.
- Further connect bike infrastructure to link Fondren and encourage ridership.
- Establish a monument to Isham Cade, a freed slave and entrepreneur from Carroll County, who in 1833 purchased property stretching from what is now State Street to Old Canton Road. At the time, what is now Duling Avenue was named Cade’s Alley.
- Encourage diverse, mixed-use housing developments in Fondren.
- Expand housing diversity with townhouses, duplexes and live-work units.
Reeves said Rebecca Garrison, executive director of Fondren Renaissance Foundation, is putting together an implementation committee for the plan. Garrison, who has served as executive director for five years, is stepping down and a search is under way for a new director.
