49 Front Street Residential Development (2012 LGAA)

City of Norwich (Winner)
County: Chenango County
Population: 5,000 to 10,000
City Hall: (607) 334-1230

In late 2009, the City of Norwich was facing a problem: a dilapidated and burned-out house in a residential neighborhood of the City was creating a serious blight on surrounding homes. While City officials and staff wanted to solve the problem by demolishing the existing structure and constructing a new house in its place, they knew that it just wasn't financially feasible for the City to take on the project alone.

It didn't take long to figure out that the City's problem at 49 Front Street along with the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego (DCMO) BOCES' need for a site-based learning experience would create a great opportunity for a collaborative venture between the City of Norwich and DCMO BOCES.

The City and BOCES "ran the numbers" and determined that the volunteer labor provided by the students during their construction program instruction would shave about $60,000 off the cost of constructing a new house, thereby making the project financially feasible.

By the spring of 2010, the City and DCMO BOCES had entered into a contractual agreement for the construction of the new house. Since that time, several student class rotations, including adult learning classes, have participated in closely supervised construction of the house, which is expected to be completed by the spring of 2013. The City expects to sell the newly constructed house on the open market.

This project has helped improve the economy and the overall quality of life in the community in several ways. First, it has provided an educational benefit to the students who have learned and applied real-world construction practices during the project. Second, this project has helped deliver a residential neighborhood from the grip of blight that was caused by an abandoned and deteriorating house on the block, improve property values in the neighborhood and encourage other nearby homeowners to undertake their own home improvement projects. Third, the cooperative effort of the City and DCMO BOCES in taking on this project created at least eight jobs for the skilled contractors who worked beside the students and shared the knowledge of their trades, as well as allowed for the purchase of building materials from local vendors. Finally, this project has put a residential property back on the tax rolls.