Business View Civil & Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 11

100 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 downtown New Haven.” The downtown core is considered vital to the community as it provides a gathering place for neighbors, while helping to define New Haven’s character. “Regardless of what percentage the core is to the size of the community, without a downtown, everybody’s affected,” says Mayor McMichael. Another crucial dimension to community- building in the city council’s eyes are developers who are active in the social project of affordable, quality living. To that end, they’ve recently partnered with custom home builder Lancia Homes, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fort Wayne, to build better lives for the families in the community. “As a developer and home builder, what I look for are cities that engage their citizens as partners in building strong communities,” offers Jamie Lancia, Owner of Lancia Homes. “New Haven has done an outstanding job at inspiring local builders like ourselves. Mayor McMichael is always willing to sit down and talk about a project, so we really love that partnership and collaborative approach to residential planning. We’re currently building section three of an exclusive neighborhood – a more traditional, single-family subdivision called Victoria Lakes. And what’s special about Victoria Lakes is that the property on which it’s being built was originally owned by Habitat. Through discussions with the Mayor, we decided to reach out to them, and we formed an agreement to purchase that property. Then, we developed lots there and agreed to sell a couple of lots to Habitat at our cost. And that’s probably the first time that we’ve brought people together to create an economically diverse community. I think it’s a really neat dynamic.” Providing Habitat families with Lancia-quality homes is only the tip of the iceberg when it