We are now entering the third year of Vineland’s five-year cycle for its Neighborhood Preservation Program (NPP) designation through the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. This included an initial $125,000 grant to generate visible, tangible change in the Landis Avenue Downtown Vineland NPP District driven by local residents and business owners. Also, the District anticipates receiving up to $125,000 in each of the five years to assist with economic and community development. We have now been awarded our grant for FY 2024.We have continued to have a lot of success in all of the programs that we have initiated in the past two years. Many of these you are aware of, as we have been promoting and speaking about them in past years, and many of the results are visible. These include our residential and commercial façade improvement grants, the AVE Bucks BOGO gift card program, Feet On The AVE program that promotes local NPP businesses, as well as our public art initiative Urban Canvases On The Ave.
I want to mention here another part of this initiative—a local NPP Stakeholder Team, which plays a vital role in the creation of an Implementation Plan. It combines community engagement, local knowledge, and hard data to come up with projects to address local needs and build on local assets.
The Stakeholder Team meets monthly at the Main Street Vineland office and via zoom. The team is comprised of community members—business and property owners, residents, clergy, and others interested in formulating projects that will make a difference in the commercial and residential climate of our downtown and surrounding areas. We are looking for a few more Stakeholder Team members. If interested in being part of this group, please e-mail or call our office.
The current and past programs combined with brainstorming by the team to come up with projects—business-related and residential-related—will result in drawing up an Implementation Plan, by mid-February. While much attention is being focused on projects for the third year, other longer-term projects are also being considered.
The focus is to see where we are now, what areas we can build or alter, as well as how to separate perceptions from reality, and make our downtown area responsive to the needs, desires, and aspirations of the community. More details will be forthcoming, so stay tuned.
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Main Street Vineland’s Urban Canvases On The Ave Mural dedication ceremony is set for Wednesday, January 17, at noon at the First United Methodist Church, 700 E. Landis Avenue. Join us as we celebrate the dedication of this new mosaic and painted mural by Brian Hawk, David Woods, Eurhi Jones, and David McShane. All are welcome to attend.
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Our quarterly team meetings—Economic Vitality, Design, Organization and Promotion teams—will take place this Thursday, January 18, at 12 noon, at the Main Street Vineland office, 603 E. Landis Ave and via zoom.
