What began as a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant for the Murchison neighborhood awarded in 2020 has now become fully fledged plans for a better life for residents on Murchison Road.

The Murchison Choice Neighborhood Plan is a development plan designed to renew and revitalize the Murchison neighborhood by focusing on housing, the neighborhood and the people who live there.

Being worked on by the City of Fayetteville in partnership with the the Fayetteville Metropolitan Housing Authority (FMHA), the Murchison Choice Neighborhood Plan now includes proposed development plans for: 

• 207 mixed income rental units, 25 homeownership units featuring in unit washers and dryers, pantries, gardens, a park, a picnic area, a fitness center, art murals and improved street lighting.
  Family Supportive services that ensure access to economic self-sufficiency, youth and adult Education, health and wellness programs and community engagement.
  A grocery store, bank, pharmacy, trails, senior center, public art, youth center, crosswalks, bus shelters, façade improvements, workforce development center and learning lab for the community. 

Two sites have been chosen for development: 

• THE MURCHISON SITE: Includes 9.6 acres, plans to demolish 60 existing units, new construction of multi-family units, parking and plans designed 
  around courtyards and walkable streetscapes.
  THE ELLIOT CIRCLE SITE PLAN: Includes 16.6 acres, 110 existing units to be demolished, Phase I of 163 new multi-family units, Phase II plans for the construction of 44 elderly units and a design around connected parks and greenways.

New homeowners are also being kept in mind in the development plans with spaces set aside purposely for “infill homeownership” in which community residents can work with partner programs to help new homeowners acquire land within the community for new builds or to purchase a renovated property. 

The plan includes rehabilitation/new construction of 25 homes in the neighborhood available for affordable homeownership. Within 1/8 mile from the edge of the Murchison site development plan property, there are between 65-70 vacant sites that could accommodate new homes. 

The City’s Department of Economic and Community Development brought the community of Murchison Road together for a meeting on Friday Jan. 26 to provide background and present the ins and outs of what the plan entails, introduce developers and start the early discussions for relocations.

Director of Economic and Community Development for the City of Fayetteville Chris Cauley kicked off the meeting by presenting a current layout of the plans all made possible due to the HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant won in Dec. of 2020. 

“We’ve worked to engage the community to do a comprehensive neighborhood plan to create a neighborhood of choice centered on distressed public housing. We won that grant. We were one of 11 that were awarded in 2020. …they gave us just shy of half a million dollars to bring in some folks to augment my staff and the Housing Authority staff and really engage the community and talk about what the first scenario meant to folks, what they hope to see in the future and what they hope to retain from the past,” said Cauley. “There was a clear vision from the council to create a plan centered on diversity, equity and inclusion.” 
Building on that initial funding, the City of Fayetteville, Metropolitan Housing Authority, Cumberland County Schools (CCS), JBS Developers, Inc., developers for the projects and Urban Strategies, Inc. (USI) are submitting a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant to HUD for $27 million to help fund the project. With additional leverage, overall neighborhood investment will be $130.6 million.
Jim Smith of JBS Developers was able to offer a construction timeline pending being awarded the grant funding needed to begin. 
“This Choice Neighborhood Initiative is approximately an eight year endeavor from the time that this team successfully receives the grant award, which we intend to do, which can be as early as July or August of this year. At such time, this team would begin to close the Choice Neighborhood grant, close the tax credit funding and begin to work through the relocation with the existing tenants. These activities will take approximately 18 months and then the first phase of construction would be ready to begin and from there we are projecting about a two and a half year build out of the family and elderly units,” shared Smith. 
On Jan. 31, the Fayetteville City Council held a special meeting to speak directly with Cauley about the plans and the next steps. Cauley announced that all of the partner groups are working on the final preparations to submit their application for the $27 million implementation grant by Feb. 13, 2024. 

Cauley approached councilors to 
ask them to authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement between all partnered organizations to submit an application for the grant. After a brief discussion and Cauley fielding questions from councilors, the motion passed unanimously.

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As these plans continue to evolve and develop, interested members of the community can follow along with progress by going online to www.fayettevillenc.gov/city-services and finding the full plans under the “Economic & Community Development” tab.