HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-09-020 - Downtown Facade Improvement Grant Program Interpretations
REPORT
REPORT TO:
Finance and Corporate Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING: April 20, 2009
SUBMITTED BY:
Silvia Wright, Manager of Downtown & Community
Development
PREPARED BY:
Cory Bluhm, Urban Investment Advisor
WARD(S) INVOLVED:
Wards 1 and 6
DATE OF REPORT:
April 9, 2009
REPORT NO.:
CAO-09-020
SUBJECT: Downtown Façade Improvement Grant Program
Interpretations
RECOMMENDATION:
That Council Policy I-535 be amended to include a series of interpretations, as shown in the
appendix of this report.
BACKGROUND:
The Downtown Façade Improvement Grant Program was approved in January, 2009. The
program allows the City to issue grants that cover 50% of façade improvement costs, up to a
maximum of $10,000 per storefront. Approval of any grant is subject to a series of policies and
requirements, outlined in the Downtown Community Improvement Plan. The program is
currently slated to last 5 years.
Since the program was adopted, staff have been working with numerous building and property
owners on proposals and applications for façade improvements. Through these discussions,
various interpretations of the policies had to be made. To ensure consistent and equitable
administration of the program, it is appropriate to document any such interpretations. This will
ensure the same interpretations are made each year, regardless of which staff administer the
program.
REPORT:
Façade grant applications received thus far have required the City’s Financial Incentives Review
Team to make various interpretations. The following section explains each interpretation and
the basis for it:
1. Free-standing Ground Mounted Signs
A number of applications requested funding for ground-mounted signs that are not attached to
the building façade. Often these are located at the edge of the property. While the City
supports the installation of improved, high quality ground signs, grants are clearly intended for
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improvements to facades. As free-standing signs are not attached to the façade, they do not
quality.
2. Street Fronting Facades
A number of inquiries were made about facades which face onto parking lots, and facades
which are separated from the street by a vacant lot. The intent of the program policies are to
primarily to assist facades which directly abut the roadway, and not to provide grants to facades
which could some day be blocked by infill development. As such, these two instances would
not qualify. However, façades which do not directly abut a roadway, but are separated either by
a City-owned park or an urban plaza, would meet the intent of the program and qualify.
3. Entranceways to Office or Residential Buildings
Multiple applications were received requesting grants to assist in the improvement of entrances
to lobby areas of residential and office buildings. These facades qualify only if the buildings
they are located in contain commercial uses at ground floor, either existing, planned or vacant.
The intent of this policy is to offer grants only to those buildings where the majority of the ground
floor is commercial, with commercial uses typically including retail, restaurant and personal
service type uses. Office uses on a ground floor would not be considered a commercial use.
4. Multiple Storefronts
Typically, financial incentives are offered per building. However, realizing that not every building
is the same size, and that certain buildings contain multiple storefronts, the grants were offered
per storefront. As a result, a building with multiple storefronts is eligible for up to $10,000 per
storefront, to an overall maximum of $30,000.
In a few instances, multiple storefronts once existed, but have since been amalgamated into
one larger storefront. In other words, one store now occupies the equivalent of two or more
storefronts. Likewise, certain storefronts are more than double the size of a typical storefront,
as they were originally designed for a department store-style business. As the program is
clearly intended to provide equitable assistance for larger buildings and larger storefronts, given
the extra cost of improving facades of exceeding widths, it is the opinion of the City’s Financial
Incentive Review Team that such instances should qualify as multiple storefronts.
In most cases, the cost to improve these wide storefronts is significantly higher than the cost of
an average sized storefront. But coincidentally, the improvement of these exceeding wide
storefronts can provide a significantly greater visual impact on downtown streets. As such,
there is a clear community benefit to offering equitable incentives to these exceedingly wide
storefronts.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The attached interpretation does not alter the overall funding allocation for this program. Grants
could not exceed 50% of the project costs, and each building would still be subject to an overall
maximum of $30,000.
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ACKNOWLEDGED BY:
Rod Regier, Executive Director Economic Development
Appendix:
Proposed Modifications to Council Policy I-535
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PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS TO COUNCIL POLICY I-535
That Council Policy I-535, be amended as follows:
1. That Section 4 ‘Façade Improvement Grant Program” be amended by adding the
following subsection 4.5:
4.5Interpretations
“
A) Under section 9.4.B, free-standing ground mounted signs, not attached to the
façade, do not qualify as eligible works;
B) Under section 9.4.B, street fronting facades do not include facades which are
separated from the street line by a surface parking lot or vacant lot. Facades which
are separated from the street line by a City park or urban plaza would be considered
street fronting facades.
C) Under section 9.4.D.4, entranceways to office or residential buildings are only eligible
if the majority of the ground floor of the building has commercial uses (either existing,
planned or currently vacant). For the purpose of this program, office is not
considered a commercial use.
D) Under section 9.4.E.1, Program Assistance and Requirements, a building with
multiple storefronts may include those buildings where the width of an individual
storefront is, in the opinion of the Downtown Financial Incentives Review Team,
more than double the width of an average storefront, or where an individual
storefront currently occupies what had historically been two or more storefronts.
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