In 1957, the Washington State Legislature adopted a "Urban Renewal Act" enabling cities of Washington to take action to prevent, arrest, and eliminate blight. After the US Housing Act of 1959 authorized the Housing and Home Finance Administration within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to localities for the preparation of Community Renewal Programs, Seattle formed a Community Renewal Program Committee. The federal Community Renewal Programs were designed to assist cities in the development of long-range comprehensive plans for city-wide renewal, inventorying existing "blight" both residential and non-residential, assessment of public facilities, streets, schools, parks and playgrounds, and libraries, and to assess the urban renewal treatment needed to "recapture, or create anew the good environment."
Seattle City Council authorized an application for the federal Community Renewal Program (CRP) in 1962 (Ordinance 91682) and the contract between Housing and Home Finance Agency and the City of Seattle was signed January 25, 1963. The CRP number was Wash. R-12 (CR). The total amount was for $201,491, of which federal monies constituted $134,329 (or two third of the total amount) and $67,162 was made up by City appropriations and contributed staff services. Subcontracts were let for economic studies, field surveys, and statistical work, as well as for analyzing 1960 census data. Although the Planning commission suggested the administration of the grant be transferred to their office, it remained in the Urban Renewal Office within the Executive Department until 1969 when entire Urban Renewal Division was transferred to the newly created Department of Community Development.
The goal of the Community Renewal Program was to conduct a two-year study to develop a 10-year urban renewal program with an emphasis on community rehabilitation. Specifically the study was focused on: understanding "blight" in Seattle, which included: determining the role of private enterprise, and analyzing the potential re-use of land. Other goals included: learning what public efforts are needed, reviewing codes and ordinances relating to urban renewal; and establishing priorities for urban renewal projects in Seattle. The CRP was renewed as a support function for the Model Cities project in 1969.
Frank McChesney was hired in 1962 as project director for the Community Renewal Program; he was previously in charge of Pittsburgh's CRP. He was promoted to Senior Urban Renewal Planner in 1963. Other individuals hired as Urban Renewal Planners included Assistant Community Renewal Planner Tom Bay, Junior Community Renewal Planners William Wallace, Edward Shaw, and King Katz.
The City contracted with the University of Washington for electronic data processing and various other consultants for other pieces of the grant. Other public agencies participating in the CRP included various City departments : building, Engineering, Health, Parks, Fire, Police, the City Planning Commission, the Seattle housing Authority, The Seattle School District, the Puget Sound Regional Planning council, the Port authority and the Puget Sound Regional Transportation Study.
Other urban renewal projects in the 1960s included: Yesler-Atlantic, University-Northlake, South Seattle, and the Pike Place Market.
Primarily the records of the Community Renewal Program, although there is some information on other urban renewal projects including Northlake/ University, First Hill, Cherry Hill, and the Yesler-Atlantic Project. Correspondents include the Planning Commission, the University of Washington, and members of the Civic Unity Committee. Board minutes for the Civic Unity Committee are also included. There is some information on how the continuation of the grant overlapped with the Seattle Model City Program.
In addition to correspondence of Frank McChesney, the records include correspondence from 1962 to 1964 of Talbot Wegg, Urban Renewal Coordinator in the Office of Urban Renewal, who was responsible for hiring Frank McChesney. Correspondence concerns CRP program in other cities, the hiring of additional personnel, and consultant research for the CRP.
The bulk of the records (2.0 cf) relate to the CRP. A Steering Committee was established with the Planning Commission staff and staff of the Office of Urban Renewal to assist with survey methodologies. The progress reports, quarterly reports, and minutes, provide an overview of the challenges and issues the project encountered as well as background on decisions made in the CRP.
Drafts of the CRP application with the Urban Renewal Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency is included along with subsequent revisions in 1965 and the final contract. Correspondence back and forth between the two agencies is included. Seattle requested copies of many other cities' applications for Community Urban Renewal Programs, and these are included in the records. Correspondence with the Regional Director for Urban Renewal in Region VI of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, as well as staff from Washington, D.C. during the submittal of the CRP application is included. The CRP application was submitted with ten working papers outlining procedure of developing the study; twenty-one working papers were written in total and they are included in these records. Topics include blight analysis, survey manuals and housing evaluation. Drafts of a final report are included, but there is no final draft.
A large portion of the data analysis and survey work was done by contractors. Correspondence and contracts with consultants is included. The University of Washington was involved in mapping work and other consultants worked on urban design and census data.
Information on other urban renewal projects are included in this records series. Overviews of projects such as the Cherry Hill Project and the Yesler Atlantic program are included. Background information used in urban renewal projects is at the end of the records. Information on housing, labor, and industry is included.
Correspondents include: Talbot Wegg, Urban Renewal Coordinator, John (Jack) P. Willison, Urban Renewal Director, city officials in other cities involved in CRP, and Urban Renewal officials at the federal level.
Related records include other Urban Renewal Program records as well as Urban Renewal and Planning studies in the Documents Catalog.
Records are open to the public.
[Item and date], Community Renewal Program Records, Record Series 1642-04. Box [number], Folder [number]. Seattle Municipal Archives.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.