Turner's 'Complete Communities' initiative to start with quick projects in August

Mayor Sylvester Turner's marquee community development project plans to break ground on small "quick-delivery projects" in August, according to an implementation timeline presented to City Council this week.

The update came more than two months after Turner announced the Complete Communities initiative, which is aimed at revitalizing five low-income neighborhoods through public works projects, affordable housing and community support, among other improvements

The smaller "quick-delivery" projects will focus on such issues as street maintenance, trash sweeps and animal control — some of which the city already does in neighborhoods across Houston. Larger "long-term projects" are slated for spring 2018, according to Patrick Walsh, the director of the city's planning and development department.

At the moment, the city has yet to formally identify which projects to focus on, and officials still are soliciting advice from "neighborhood support teams," comprised of civic and business leaders.

Turner said in April that the city would redirect 60 percent of its local and federal housing dollars to the initiative. That amounts to roughly $34 million annually, if federal funding remains steady, on top of $28 million in available local housing funds.

Because the exact nature of the projects are still being determined, the program's cost and budget is still up in the air, Walsh said.

The five pilot neighborhoods -- Acres Homes, Gulfton, Second Ward, Near Northside and Third Ward -- were chosen partly because some degree of community planning and leadership already exists in them, Walsh said.

He acknowledged that other, more distressed areas exist, but they would be too burdensome for the pilot program.

"It would have been a huge lift to start with some of these heavily distressed neighborhoods in this first go around," Walsh said. "We think now we're going to be able to take some of these lessons learned and, hopefully, be able to build these other areas in a future go around."