A new neighborhood plan is in the works for the historic Toulminville community, which has struggled with disinvestment in recent decades.

“This is not just a plan to put on paper, this is for real,” Mobile City Councilmember Cory Penn, who represents most of Toulminville, said during the meeting. “We know we’ve been behind, but it’s time to move our community forward.”

Toulminville, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city of Mobile and the childhood home of Hank Aaron, is the first community in Mobile to utilize the Neighborhood Planning Toolkit, an initiative from the city to help residents plan for and improve their communities.

Over the last year, the city has worked with Toulminville residents and the consulting group Planning NEXT to gather data and learn about the needs of the neighborhood. Now, the city has identified priorities for the neighborhood, and on Tuesday, around 80 residents gathered at John. L. LeFlore Magnet High School to provide feedback on those priorities. This meeting was the third the city hosted in the community; the other two were held last fall.

It all culminates in a “neighborhood plan” for Toulminville, which will be presented to city officials and formally adopted by the Mobile Planning Commission. The city and community advocates can refer to the plan when applying for funding or setting up projects in the community.