HOW CAN A SMALL CITY ON THE REBOUND BOOST ITS MOMENTUM through planning, investment, and new development regulations?

SUMMARY

A lot had happened since Altoona’s last comprehensive plan was adopted in 2012—the same year the city was designated “financially distressed” by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Its financial outlook had improved. High-quality housing opportunities had been added to the city’s landscape. There were more glimmers of activity downtown, including new restaurants and shopping. And, the city was in the heart of a region increasingly known for—and taking advantage of—its natural and recreational assets.

With an eye on boosting this momentum and not losing ground, the City of Altoona hired czb to guide the development of an implementable comprehensive plan with a fresh focus on the community’s utmost priorities.

Competing for Households with Better Public Spaces and Stronger Neighborhoods

It became clear from the start that competing for Altoona’s fair share of the region’s households and businesses—and especially the region’s skilled younger workers—was an overarching priority of the comprehensive plan. It also became clear that becoming more competitive required advanced work in two broad areas: the development of high-quality public spaces to communicate a strong commitment to quality of life, and attention to the health of the city’s neighborhoods.

All Together Altoona is organized around these prioritized areas of work. It provides focused guidance on a handful of implementable tasks to move Altoona in the direction of doing more with public spaces and recreational assets, and pursuing an approach to neighborhood health that embraces strategic housing interventions.    

Coming to Terms with Underspending and Underinvestment

A critical part of the comprehensive planning process was original analysis to shine a spotlight on the presence of blight in Altoona’s neighborhoods and conditions along the city’s major corridors.

Another critical part of the process was comparative research that showed how underfunded and understaffed City Hall was following decades of fiscal austerity—and that there was capacity to raise local resources to devote to new and expanded interventions. One of several foundational steps in All Together Altoona is the development of a special implementation fund that relies on local resources to spearhead new initiatives and leverage state and federal funding.  

Open houses gather info on comprehensive plan process 

December 5, 2023