Illustrating Investment Potential in Your Neighborhood

I have worked in a lot of communities that, for a lack of a better term, are stuck. These are the traditional neighborhoods where there is a demand and need for additional housing, but there is no development. The table is set with market demand, existing infrastructure, and the need or desire for housing. When I engage with builders, they do not believe there are lots to build on, and so they develop elsewhere.  

The next smallest step in the redevelopment process is to understand and illustrate what is possible in these neighborhoods. We have to show where the lots are located, and how new homes can be built on these potential sites. This requires a little more work then scrolling through real estate listings. It also requires a little marketing where the best salespeople are the residents, themselves.  

There are many different illustration tools available and even more ways to overlay and edit photos. I have found that the best time-tested approach is to draw things by hand with an ink pen and color in with markers. Drawing is a very powerful tool that can be used to demonstrate what is possible. This simple and arguably analogue technique is actually the most approachable to the general public. 

Hand sketches are full of faults such as squiggly lines, and marker bleeds. Sometimes the drawing is at the wrong scale or does not fit between the existing lines. That’s ok, and part of the process and the approach. These types of drawings are malleable and open to edit. They encourage others to take the next step. Unlike the hyper-realistic, computer-generated perspective, the sketch is more believable and ultimately more approachable. 

Technical building or site plans are written in a unique language by the architects and engineers. This language takes many years to master and speak fluently. The flaws in a bad plan might not be readily evident until the building is constructed. The malleability of a sketch gives you the freedom to make your mistakes early in the envisioning process and adjust as you go. 

I use hand sketches to explore the first step of development for a community by drawing in all the possible development sites. In this example, the community is composed of small, single family homes. The scale, the form, and the character are familiar to the residents. It is something they know and can easily see. Using the plat showing all the property lines, I simply began drawing similar-sized rectangles to represent the footprints of new homes. No giant leaps, just copying the existing patterns. Within a couple of minutes, the number of new homes outnumbered the existing homes.  

Through the use of a disposable felt pen and color markers, the idea that investment could occur emerges on the page. This is an example of thickening the community by illustrating what is possible. The sketch is not fancy and it's not permanent. The purpose is to advance the conversation and attract investment. This sketch shows a builder that could develop 50 new homes in this established community. This critical mass makes the community look more enticing to a developer or builder to dig deeper and investigate this neighborhood. 

These loose lines emulate a pattern that exists in the community and demonstrate its potential. This is an example of the next smallest step that a resident can undertake to attract investment into their community. Get out your pen and paper and start to show people what could be.     

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