July 11, 2013

The Jones Payne Group, Inc. announced that Grand Forks Community Land Trust (GFCLT) has purchased WeaverPRM™, the firm’s cloud-based software that integrates workflow tracking, building, and homeowner information into a system designed to organize and manage parcel and property-based activities. Founded in 2010 as the first CLT in North Dakota, Grand Forks Community Land Trust is committed to providing permanently affordable homeownership opportunities for low to moderate income home buyers in Grand Forks.

WeaverPRM’s adaptable design will enable GFCLT to address needs in several areas:

• Portfolio management: tracking architectural drafts, RFP responses, bids, and final inspection.
• Document storage: uploading and attaching documents to people/buildings/parcels without data storage limits.
• Tracking subsidy: associating grants and loans with projects (including phasing), as well as with people, buildings, and land.
• Applications: using formula-based waiting list functionality for homeowner selection.

Jones Payne will provide GFCLT with training to organize its diverse types of information about people, land, and buildings for optimum use of WeaverPRM. In addition, the firm will be consulting with GFCLT on best practices for migrating to Google apps, including email, contacts, and calendars.

“WeaverPRM is a secure, easy-to-use, web-based program that is accessible to our staff anywhere, enabling us to track the correlation between people, buildings, and documents,” said Emily Wright, Executive Director, Grand Forks Community Land Trust. “We chose WeaverPRM for several reasons, including its affordability and technical support, and we are especially excited about the waiting list functionality for selecting potential homeowners.”

About Grand Forks Community Land Trust: Grand Forks Community Land Trust, founded in 2010 by a group of community members, is committed to providing permanently affordable homeownership opportunities in Grand Forks. The idea for the CLT came in late 2009 when the Grand Forks Housing Authority began researching successful community land trusts in Minnesota and concluded that, although no CLTs existed to date in North Dakota, the model could be successful in Grand Forks. Today, Grand Forks Community Land Trust is the first CLT in North Dakota and is an active member of the National CLT Network.

The Madison Area Community Land Trust Chooses WeaverPRM

January 7, 2013

The Jones Payne Group, Inc. announced that the Madison Area Community Land Trust (Madison Area CLT) has purchased WeaverPRM™, the firm’s cloud-based software that integrates workflow tracking, dwelling, and homeowner information into a system designed to help organize and manage parcel and property-based activities. Incorporated in 1991 and located in Madison, Wisconsin, the Madison Area CLT’s three-pronged mission is to create permanently affordable owner-occupied housing, revitalize economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and protect the environment through the sound use of land and natural resources.

WeaverPRM’s adaptable design will enable Madison Area CLT to manage its new housing development projects going forward, as well as provide all the tools necessary to steward its growing portfolio of permanently affordable owner-occupied housing. And, because of its powerful land management tools, WeaverPRM will assist the Madison Area CLT in managing land for urban agriculture and conservation.

As a WeaverPRM 3.0 beta testing site, the Madison Area CLT played an important role in the refinement of a number of the features that made their way into the final product. An added benefit of the beta testing process was the creation of the Troy Gardens archive, an online collection of all the documentation from an award-winning project that combined a working farm, a restored prairie, community gardens, and a mixed-income, cohousing community – all on 31 acres right in the city of Madison.

“We have hundreds of key documents and many other pieces of information that have accumulated over the past twenty years, and we are excited to finally be putting a system in place that will keep that neatly arranged for us,” said Andy Miller, Program Manager for the Madison Area CLT. “This will help us today and be of even greater benefit tomorrow because we can be confident that the new staff we bring in can easily put their hands on the information they need to do their work. Community land trusts are data- driven organizations, with mountains of paperwork to track and with long-term stewardship obligations spanning 100 years. We owe it to the people we serve to keep accurate information about their homes, their families, and all the contractual obligations associated with them. WeaverPRM helps us do just that, in a way we could never do with paper and spreadsheets.”

The Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative Chooses WeaverPRM To Help Manage Affordable Housing Initiatives

October 4, 2011 

The Jones Payne Group, Inc. announced that the Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative (ALTC) has purchased WeaverPRM™, the firm’s web-based software that integrates workflow tracking, dwelling, and homeowner information into a system designed to help organize and manage parcel and property-based activities. ALTC, founded in 2009, will become a central server to create a strategic and focused approach to developing community land trust (CLT) housing initiatives around the Atlanta BeltLine.

ALTC is committed to using the CLT concept to offset the effects the current Atlanta BeltLine economic development efforts might have on gentrification of neighborhoods and displacement of low- and moderate- housing stock.

“We believe that WeaverPRM will help us standardize and track how the individual CLTs under the ALTC umbrella function and implement regional best practices,” said Tony Pickett, executive director of the ALTC. “As we move to create new land trusts, WeaverPRM will ensure the continuity and integration of all the CLTs while allowing them to maintain and protect their unique identify within each community.”

The Jones Payne Group will be offering a demonstration of WeaverPRM on Wednesday, October 26 at 3:00 pm during the National Community Land Trust Network’s 2011 Conference in Seattle, WA.

About the Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative:  Under the leadership of The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-based Developers (AHAND) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation – Atlanta Civic Site, a group of more than 30 public, private, nonprofit, and community organizations created the Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative (ALTC) to maintain affordability in neighborhoods at risk of gentrification and displacement due to the Atlanta BeltLine $2.8 billion redevelopment initiative and throughout the City of Atlanta. The ALTC is spearheading the creation of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in order to provide access to land and housing for low- and moderate-income residents; increase long-term community control of neighborhood resources; empower residents through involvement and participation in the organization; and preserve the affordability of housing permanently.

WeaverPRM™, a web-based software product developed by the firm’s IMS/GIS group, provides property management capabilities to community land trusts, real estate developers, housing authorities, and environmental mitigation programs.

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative to Implement The Jones Payne Group’s WeaverPRM for Managing Its Homes and Housing Units

October 5, 2010

The Jones Payne Group announced that the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is implementing WeaverPRM to manage its housing units. WeaverPRM, offering in-depth, detailed tracking and management capabilities, integrates workflow tracking, dwelling, and homeowner information into a web-based software system designed to help organize and manage parcel and property-based activities.

DSNI has created an inventory all 225 units of its land trust named Dudley Neighbors Inc (DNI) on WeaverPRM and tracks leaseholder issues in real time via laptop, PDA, and Smartphone. The nonprofit also scans and stores copies of deeds, product warranty information, leaseholder agreements, and other documents associated with each unit for easy access and retrieval.

“We chose WeaverPRM for its ability to inventory our properties and track workflow, projects, grants, and construction,” said Jason Webb, director of DNI at DSNI. “In addition, the system has greatly enhanced our ability to track communication with homeowners and create reports for our different constituents, including our board of directors, foundations, and homeowners.”

“WeaverPRM grew out of our extensive experience in working with local communities during our noise mitigation work,” said Michael K. Payne, managing principal of The Jones Payne Group. “Community Land Trusts have many of the same issues focused, of course, on the land and buildings but, perhaps more importantly, on the people who live on the properties.”

About the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative:  The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is an innovative resident-led planning and organizing community nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding the Dudley neighborhood of Boston as a vibrant urban village. DSNI’s mission is “To empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create, and control a vibrant, diverse, and high quality neighborhood in collaboration with community partners.” Home to more than 24,000 residents, Dudley is located in the Roxbury/North Dorchester area of Boston. Since 1985, 600 of 1,300 vacant lots have been transformed into nearly 300 new homes, a town common, gardens, urban agriculture, parks, and playgrounds; 300 housing units have been rehabbed.

The Jones Payne Group, a nationally recognized leader in the planning and implementation of community-focused programs, provides architecture, urban planning and design, program management, and information management services and products to the public and private sector. The firm has been involved in a variety of transportation-related planning, design and technology implementation projects including design and construction for airport noise mitigation and capital improvement programs. Headquartered in Boston with offices across the U.S., The Jones Payne Group provides information technology management services and products, planning, community outreach and liaison services, environmental impact studies, airport edge studies, community development and mitigation strategies.