RRC Process | MiPlace

How to become redevelopment ready

The Redevelopment Communities® (RRC) process consists of several interconnected steps which are undertaken at a community's own pace. Learn more about each step below. For questions on the process, contact the RRC Planner for your region.

1. Set Up for Success

Prior to official engagement, it is helpful to coordinate a steering committee or team to review the RRC Best Practice Handbook and determine if RRC is the right fit for your community. If you need additional information regarding the RRC Toolkit please reach out to your region's RRC Community Planner.

2. Engagement

Formal engagement indicates your community's desire to work toward RRC Essentials or Certification by officially establishing contact with the RRC team and beginning to access customized guidance. Engagement consists of the following steps:

LEARN
Attend Best Practices Trainings—A community must complete training on all 6 best practices. RRC offers this training in several forms: online self-directed, online live instructor (Ask RRC Community Planner about next session), and, when conditions allow, in-person over two days.

APPROVE
Pass a Resolution of Intent—The community’s governing body must pass a Resolution of Intent outlining the value the community sees in engaging in the process. Check out an example.

CONNECT
Reach out to your RRC Community Planner, notify them of your intended engagement in RRC, and attach the Resolution of Intent in the outreach email. Your RRC Community Planner will review training records and get the community formally engaged in RRC. When the engagement process has been completed the Community Planner will notify the community via email and provide some additional welcome materials which include next steps.

COMMIT
The MEDC legal team will send an RRC Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to the community point of contact. The MOU should be signed by a municipal executive and sent back to the contact on the MEDC legal team.
PATH SELECTION
Once engaged, the community and RRC Community Planner will discuss which RRC level best fits the community's capacity, needs, and goals. Setting this goal early helps RRC provide more customized feedback. See the RRC Handbook for details on the two designations: Essentials and Certified.

3. Baseline Evaluation + Community Snapshot

After formal engagement, communities will be placed in their RRC planner’s pipeline to be evaluated. Each community is evaluated in the order of their formal engagement date. While awaiting formal evaluation, communities can begin to update the plans, policies, and procedures that do not meet best practices expectations laid out in the RRC Handbook.

The community's RRC Community Planner will formally document their evaluation on the community's Trello Board, RRC's online project management system. Additionally, the community's RRC contact will be provided a 'Community Snapshot' detailing an overview of where the community is currently aligned with the RRC Best Practices and where criteria is missing.

Once the community has been formally evaluated, the RRC Community Planner will reach out to schedule a Trello onboarding session (if one has not already been completed). This session will also provide a chance for RRC to introduce the community to our resources, reaffirm the process, and answer any questions about the baseline evaluation.

4. Incorporate Missing RRC Best Practices

Once the community has been formally evaluated, it will have a firmer understanding of which best practices are already in place and which may need some work to fully align with the community's desired RRC level. Now is the time to work to meet the best practices that have been identified as missing. Upload supporting documentation to Trello, RRC's online project management software.

As your community is in this phase, be sure to familiarize yourself with two main tools the RRC has built to provide direct assistance:

Technical Assistance Match Funding: Once your community has successfully incorporated some missing Best Practices as identified in your baseline report, and confirmed by your RRC Planner, you can work with your RRC Planner to request technical assistance matching funds. Learn more about the RRC Technical Assistance Match Funding process at www.miplace.org/rrctamatch.

RRC Online Resource Library: Working with more than 290 comunities across the state, the RRC has seen countless great examples of how to incorporate best practices into communities of all sizes. We've compiled many of those examples into one place - the RRC Libary - to help you avoid recreating the wheel. Whenever you need some inspiration, check out this resource to get the ideas flowing. Visit the library at www.miplace.org/rrclibrary.

5. Goal Achieved & Maintenance

Congratulations on achieving a major milestone! During this phase, the community will tackle two subphases:

Celebrating: Once the community reaches its desired goal, it's time to celebrate its success! The RRC Planner will work with the community to identify new benefits available to it based on the level it achieved (Essentials or Certified) and plan a public presentation if the community wishes to do so.

Maintenance: The process of continuous improvement does not stop once a community has obtained RRC Essentials or Certification. Your community will be responsible for keeping up with certain Best Practices including annual updates and reporting for certain items. The amount of maintenace depends on the community's level and how it integrated the best practices to meet that level.

Additionally, if the community achieved Essentials, it may choose to now pursue Certification as well (entirely optional). RRC is also always working to help Certified or Essentials communities find new interests and focus areas to continually evolve and learn.

6. Renewal Process

At the time of the communty's 4-year Certification or Essentials anniversary your RRC Community Panner will provide the community with a snapshot detailing if any best practices or annual items need to be addressed prior to the 5-year renewal date.

To remain at the Certified or Essentials status the community must be aligned with all the best practice expectations by the 5-year anniversary.