National planning blog CoolTown Studios is convinced that a whole community can design a more interesting urban infill project than a single developer working alone. Called a beta community, it's a collaboration—both online and in person—between future tenants and an open-minded developer. Together they plan out the interior space and the public areas with the goal of creating a more vibrant, affordable, and personally satisfying place.

The analogy is Linux, a operating system alternative to Microsoft that was built by a community of computer programmers. Cities can also benefit from a die hard group of supporters intent on customizing their living space and their neighborhood.

“With the help of technology and some community building, we'll be able to aggregate the many values, preference and needs of the market into a collective vision coupled with like-minded implementors and investors,” CoolTown founder Neil Takemoto writes.

CoolTown is offering a $10,000 ‘reward’ to the first beta community to fashion a working agreement with a developer for a catalytic urban project in a U.S. city that has at least a $5 million investment. It offers advice on establishing a beta community, ideas on how to seed it and thoughts on the right kind of developer, for example, one who will pass on savings if tenants ask for blank spaces instead of fancy finishes.

Examples of beta communities include the Upper Rock District in Maryland and Freiburg, Germany where a group of future tenants partnered with the city (which bought the site) to co-design and co-develop a former military base into what is today a pedestrian-oriented urban village of 4700 people, with 600 jobs.

Freiburg is the most established beta community, but the idea is very much malleable to local conditions. Which means Cleveland can define how a beta community builds a neighborhood that looks and feels the way we want.

GCBL offers this web space and assistance in organizing a beta community.