16 | FORWARD JANESVILLE When I talk to community leaders about what makes a place worth staying in, I almost always start with housing. People want to be near their work, near their family, near the life they are building. A vibrant community gives them more than one way to do that. Communities thrive when housing comes in many shapes. A starter home for the young teacher in her first classroom. An apartment above Main Street for the nurse on swing shifts. A modest condo for the empty nester who wants to walk to coffee. A single-family lot for the family that just had a third kid. When a city offers all of those, people can move up or down the ladder without leaving town. That is how a community keeps its talent. Housing is workforce strategy. In Pensacola, our first downtown apartment building delivered a 7.6 percent return on investment. National investors wanted bigger numbers. Local investors stepped in because they understood that the real return is a better community. Within five years, the Community Redevelopment Agency reported a 34 percent increase in assessed property value. Our Southtowne neighborhood now has 258 units and roughly 450 residents. Fourteen more downtown projects are in progress. Each one adds tax base to infrastructure that already exists. That is how solvent communities grow. Janesville is at a similar moment. The work happening inside the Housing Summit, Vision Forward Fund, the zoning code update, and the custom and tract builders highlighted in this issue are all part of the same equation. Each one is a front door. A vibrant city needs many. Make it easier to build the next home. The largest barrier to housing in most communities is the time between an investor saying yes and a permit getting issued. I recently read Shane Phillips’ book The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping It There) and recommended it to local investors here in Janesville. Phillips makes a simple argument. When cities streamline permitting and zoning, more housing gets built, prices stabilize, and workers can afford to live close to work. When the process is slow and unpredictable, good projects collapse before the first shovel hits the ground. Faster, clearer decisions are how a community signals that it is open for the future. This is one reason CivicCon, the civic education series I helped start in Pensacola in 2017, has hosted so many speakers on housing. Victor Dover walked our community through the math on housing and transportation costs in walkable neighborhoods. Joe Minicozzi showed how downtown mixed-use generates far more property tax per acre than spread-out development. Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns pushed us to think about the long-term fiscal health of every project we approve. None of this is theory. It is how cities decide whether they are solvent twenty years from now. Start with local investors and small wins. People often ask where to begin. The answer is the same in Pensacola, in Janesville, and in every smaller town we have worked with. Start with local investors who care more about the place than the spreadsheet. Pick a few projects that show what is possible. Celebrate the early movers: the bakery on the corner, the apartments above retail, the family that fills in the missing tooth on the block. Small wins build the confidence that makes the next round of investment possible. The investors, builders, leasing agents, and realtors highlighted in this report are doing exactly that work. The leaders who carry it forward will be the ones who help good housing projects move quickly. A vibrant Janesville will be built one house, one apartment, one block at a time. About Quint Studer: Quint Studer is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and leadership expert dedicated to helping organizations and communities thrive. He founded the Studer Group, which improved education and healthcare outcomes and earned the Malcolm Baldrige Award before its acquisition in 2015. His focus has long been community revitalization through the Studer Community Institute, which advances early brain development and leadership training, and the Center for Civic Engagement, which brings speakers to Pensacola on a wide range of topics aimed at educating citizens and raising civic IQ. His efforts helped revitalize Pensacola, Florida, driving significant growth and earning national recognition. He has authored 16 books, including The Busy Leader’s Handbook, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and Building a Vibrant Community, a blueprint for creating great places to live, work, and play. A passionate teacher and mentor, he continues to inspire leaders and communities nationwide. Faster Housing Decisions Build a More Vibrant Janesville By Quint Studer ADVERTORIAL When a city offers a mix of housing, people can move up or down the ladder without leaving town. That is how a community keeps its talent. ‘
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTEwNzI5