The Community Economic Development Authority held a public forum Saturday morning to solicit input for a new community-development plan necessary to ensure that the town can secure up to $1 million in funds for 2011.

Wareham is one of eleven communities in Massachusetts that are automatically eligible for mini-entitlement grants from the state’s Department of Housing and Urban Development, small grants specifically set aside for designated blighted areas.  While this means that the town bypasses a competitive application process for the financing, the money can only be awarded if used in alignment with a Community Development Strategy developed by the CEDA board and approved by the Board of Selectmen.

This year’s strategy, however, must address a few issues.

First, the state has requested that the grants be targeted to a smaller geographic area than in previous years.

CEDA representatives said that this would be ineffective for Wareham.  The state allocates money by calculating incomes in a certain geographic area.  But rather than large impoverished neighborhoods, CEDA representatives argue that the town has pockets of poverty amidst affluent neighborhoods.

So if they designate a larger target area, the CEDA can apply state money to several of the less affluent neighborhoods rather than focusing on just one.  But a target area that averages the incomes of the entire Cromesett peninsula, for instance, will be given less funding than a target area that simply includes the affordable housing on Cromesett nearest to Route 6.

“There does not seem to be a natural target area [in Wareham],” said CEDA Consultant Peter Sanborn.

One option to dealing with this is to change the target area every three years. Unfortunately, CEDA members are worried that this could interrupt long term plans, such as the “multi-phased streetscape” project on Main Street in Wareham.

But Main Street was far from the only area in town to which residents wanted to see funds dedicated.  Many were concerned with businesses closing along Cranberry Highway in East Wareham, and one citizen lamented seeing “dozens” of children being picked up by school buses in front of the many hotels that dot that strip of highway and often serve as “de facto affordable housing.”

Sanborn proposed “mixed-use redevelopment,” that would incorporate housing and offices into former business locations. We’ve got to start “looking at redevelopment opportunities for businesses that have relocated.”

Selectmen Chair Jane Donahue suggested funding to assist attracting people to historic sites such as Besse Park and the Fearing Tavern. The town should try to “draw people in to see these venues, and spur further economic development,” Donahue said.

The deadline to submit the grant is December.