Sunday, February 17, 2013

Fifth Street Project Overview



 5th Street Neighborhood Plan & Market Study



Project Overview



The UT – Fort Bend County Partnership

The University of Texas, through its Center for Sustainable Development, in partnership with Fort Bend County, Texas will help a grassroots planning committee develop a Fifth Street Neighborhood Plan and Market Study. Services the University will provide include project management, planning, assessment, community engagement, and research services.



Project Goals

The project goals are to

·         build a local planning committee,

·         develop a vision for 5th street,

·         conduct an analysis of community strengths, conditions, and priorities, and

·         help the community market itself to desirable developers



Throughout the project, University of Texas graduate students and faculty will provide project management services and technical assistance to the Fort Bend County Community Development Department and Precinct 2, County Commissioner Grady Prestage’s Office to reach these goals. However, the local, 5th Street Planning Committee will ensure this is a community-based, grassroots process.



Project Timeline

Over the last decade, Fort Bend County has invested in infrastructure and community resources to improve Fifth Street residents’ quality of life. However, a more cohesive strategy is required to attract private investment, improve access to affordable housing, preserve the community’s unique character and heritage, and revive a once sustainable community. The purpose of the planning process is to execute that strategy. The Fifth Street Plan and Market study consists of the three phases described below.



Phase 1 September – February 2013

 Create An 18-Month Action Plan

 Collect Data For Housing And Business Analysis

 Form A Local Planning Committee

 Introduce Planning Process

  Prepare Community Survey To Establish Community Priorities

·         Engage Local Community Members and Conduct Surveys in the Community



Phase 2 March 2013-August 2013

·         Engage Local Community Members and Conduct Surveys in the Community

·         Develop Preliminary Market Study Analysis  along with Survey Results

·         Complete Cultural Assets Research.

·         Continue ongoing Engagement with Fifth Street Community

Phase 3 September 2013 – February 2014

·         Plan and Host Community Charette and Visioning Event

·         Prepare Charette Results for Presentation to Developers’ Symposium

·         Plan And Facilitate Developer’s Symposium to Market Community.




 5th Street Local Planning Committee

The Fifth Street Neighborhood Plan & Market Study is a grassroots effort to develop a community vision and attract positive development to the area. Local leaders are essential to making the residents’ vision become a reality. The Fifth Street Planning Team will be responsible for helping to assess community strengths, needs, and vision. The results will be used to market the community to attract desirable private investment.

The process requires a commitment of time, energy and participation. You won’t have to do all the planning. The UT Project Team will be here to help you get the residents involved in improving their own community.

About Fifth Street



What is Fifth Street?

Fifth Street CDP (Census Designated Place) is an area named after the major street running through the small community connecting it to Farm Road 1092 at one end and Farm Road 2234 on the other. Some parts of the community overlap with the City of Stafford and Missouri City. Still semi-rural and unincorporated, Fifth Street is surrounded by growing master planned communities southwest of Houston, Texas. Once home to self-reliant former slaves, Imperial Sugar Refinery workers, business owners, musicians, activists, and sharecroppers, the area planning and market study will build upon the community’s rich and diverse and heritage.



5th Street History

Shortly after Reconstruction, the Fifth Street community became an African American settlement. The last remnants of the settlement on Fifth Street are the Farmers’ Improvement Society (FIS) cemetery. The FIS was a mutual aid society for African American farmers to escape the cycle of dependency on sharecropping and was founded by a protégé of Booker T. Washington. The local FIS chapter purchased the land for this historic cemetery.

The community has been predominately Latino for the past two decades. Led by the local Catholic Church, residents organized, performed participatory action research, and used the results of the research to pressure local government to improve the area’s quality of life. These aspects of the community’s heritage, entrepreneurship and community activism, unknown to most of the County, are tremendous assets upon which the Fifth Street neighborhood can build.



Online Resources

For more on Fifth Street: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Street,_Texas

Farmers Improvement Society: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/aaf03

Fort Bend County, Texas: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcf07

County Commissioner Precinct 2: http://www.co.fort-bend.tx.us/getSitePage.asp?sitePage=27464

Community Activism: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1987_446875/new-asphalt-blankets-mire-on-mud-road-relieved-res.html





Project Contact

Andrea Roberts, MPA

Project Manager – Fifth Street Planning and Market Study Project

University of Texas-Austin, School of Architecture

Center for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Cities Doctoral Initiative Fellow



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