South Hartsville Heritage Alive: A Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy

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Hartsville, South Carolina, a community of 8,000 residents, has experienced many of the same economic ups and downs as other small communities. Downtown is prospering with several major construction projects, but other parts of the community lag behind. South Hartsville, a predominately African American neighborhood, is one area suffering after years of change and disinvestment. Absentee landlords, the migration of the middle-class, and an aging population on fixed incomes, have all contributed to a decline in housing quality. A once thriving community with beauty and barbershops, daycare, and a neighborhood grocery store, today few viable businesses remain. The city of Hartsville requested a CPAT to develop a place-based neighborhood revitalization strategy for South Hartsville, with residents acting as visionaries.

The team's report is designed to provide background information and data, analysis and assessment of conditions, and recommendations for moving forward based on what they heard from residents and other stakeholders. Five Focus areas are addressed including housing, services, mobility, economic vitality, and identity and participation. The effort helped lay the groundwork for deepening community involvement in all future planning processes and identified the assets of the area to be nurtured, as well as the challenges to overcome.

Meet the Team

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Team Leader

Marijoan "MJ" Bull, PhD, AICP

Marijoan Bull has over 25 years of planning experience at the local and regional level in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. During her career she has designed and implemented planning processes, overseen regulatory reviews, managed improvement projects, and completed research on interdisciplinary participation techniques. Broadly trained as a land use planner with a BS and MCP from MIT, Bull now trains future planners in a Bachelor of Regional Planning program at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. Her PhD from Salve Regina University focused on the use of the humanities in placemaking. Her primary interests include inclusive participation in land use planning, just sustainability, and housing as a human right.

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Team Member

Kimberly Burton, AICP CTP, PE, LEED AP ND

Kimberly Burton is an experienced program and project manager, as well as a professional engineer, certified planner, and LEED Accredited Professional in Neighborhood Development. She has 15 years of experience working in the public and private sectors and is the president of Burton Planning Services in Westerville, Ohio. She teaches energy, sustainability and resiliency planning in city & regional planning as an assistant professor of practice at Ohio State University. She has worked on a wide variety of planning, engineering, and environmental projects. Her skills include city and transportation planning, community and economic development, grants, environmental documents, noise and air quality analyses, safety studies, and public involvement activities.

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Team Member

Karen Campblin, AICP

Karen Campblin has more than 13 years of experience in the planning industry as a community development planner and project manager. She is the founder of ktcPLAN, LLC and has experience in corridor studies, environmental justice, transit development, and scenic highway studies and has been responsible for the design and implementation of a wide range of public involvement and community coordination programs in support of these transportation studies. Through an understanding of planning techniques, NEPA, and regulatory requirements and diverse experience, Campblin is able to solve challenges by working with the community and agencies to design viable ideas and create cost-effective solutions for sustainable transportation, policy,and community development initiatives.

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Team Member

Alina Gross, PhD

Alina Gross completed her PhD in regional planning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2014. Her research addresses community engagement in the urban and regional planning process, with an emphasis on social justice and the experience of historically marginalized social groups. Gross has planned and facilitated public participation in a variety of local contexts and also has professional planning experience in environmental planning, neighborhood planning, open space and recreation, and economic development. She has taught courses at Westfield State University's Department of Geography and Regional Planning, and has particularly valued developing new pedagogy for helping students understand the social and cultural dimensions of planning issues, in principle and in practice.

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Team Member

Bridget Wiles

Bridget Wiles is chief operations officer/TA director at APD Urban Planning and Management, LLC. She holds a master's degree in social administration from Case Western Reserve University with a specialization in community development, and has over 18 years of social work and community development expertise. Wiles has experience in management and implementation of CPD programs, budget preparation, and program monitoring and auditing. She also serves as a community facilitator during visioning planning sessions and provides stakeholder analysis for strategy implementation. As TA director for APD's Technical Assistance Program, Wiles has delivered technical assistance and capacity building services to several HUD grantees throughout the country.

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