The Neighborhood Website project is a program of the City of Walnut Creek's Community Connections. The goal of the project is to bring neighborhoods closer together and to improve communication within neighborhoods in the City through Internet information sites maintained by neighbors for neighbors.

A neighborhood website is a standard Internet website, accessible by a .org domain name, devoted to a specific City neighborhood. Typically, neighborhood websites include activities within the neighborhood, some history, the means to contact people, and providing information on things for sale, upcoming garage sales, and services that are available, such as babysitters and handymen.

Through this community/city based partnership, qualified neighborhood websites may be linked at their request to the City of Walnut Creek's website.
 
Definitions:

In terms of this project, a “neighborhood” is a logical grouping of similar homes or apartments in a geographical area within the city limits, with the commonality of natural boundary, construction date, or previously established development name. Even areas that do not have a specific and logical name to them will be considered, to the extent there are those who have made efforts to organize the residents of the neighborhood or area, and have developed the means to communicate with them.

A “neighborhood association” is a group of individuals generally known to be representative of the neighborhood by, and accessible for contact by, the persons in the neighborhood. It does not need to be a formal governing body, or the administrator of a Planned Unit Development, but the persons in the neighborhood need to know it exists, what purposes it serves, and how to reach the members. To the extent that a neighborhood association is not a formal homeowners’ association, the City reserves the right to determine whether the association falls within the qualifications for this program.

A “neighborhood webmaster” is a person designated or appointed by the neighborhood association responsible for establishment and ongoing maintenance of the website, accountable for content, and the person to whom the necessary access information will be given.

Guidelines:

The City of Walnut Creek will not become involved in censorship, or in regulating the content or conduct of the neighborhood websites. The web master and the neighborhood association have the responsibility to maintain and monitor the program.

1. The website should be available for public access. For security reasons, it is reasonable that certain pages within the website be restricted for neighborhood residents only

2. The website should not be used in the furtherance of any illegal purpose, or in violation of any federal, state, or local laws.

3. The website is not intended for commercial advertising purposes; e.g., if the neighborhood is merely reselling advertising space to commercial entities. This is not in any way intended to restrict the use of space for notifying residents of neighborhood swaps, auctions, garage sales, or services.

4. The content of the website should not contain material that while technically not illegal, is patently offensive; (e.g., any potentially libelous, defamatory, scurrilous, salacious, sexist, racist, threatening, violent, hate-mongering, or pornographic content), or which does not relate to a neighborhood interest.

5. The focus of the website is intended to be on the neighborhood, or the business of the neighborhood.

How to Apply:

To request that your website be listed on the City's Neighborhood Websites page, contact Gayle Vassar at: vassar@walnut-creek.org or 925-943-5899 ext. 2189.