Council approves renewal plan for Ford City
With a bucket of incentives approved by council, the timing is now for Ford City to renew itself, representatives of the long-down trodden neighbourhood said Monday night.
“We’re at the tipping point and the CIP (community improvement plan) is going to take Ford City over the mountain,” said Kerry Ippollito, a co-chair of the Ford City Redevelopment Committee and 32-year resident of the neighbourhood that’s been experiencing a resurgence.
Many residents and potential investors have been waiting for the CIP to pass to start up businesses, rejuvenate dilapidated buildings and build on vacant lots that have been neglected for years, she said. “There is just so much around the corner and it hinges on the CIP,” she said.
While the downtown CIP focuses on bringing more residents to the downtown, the Ford City plan also looks to rejuvenate storefronts, fix up dilapidated buildings, fill in vacant holes in the neighbourhood, help residents fix up their run-down properties and create a vibrant neighbourhood with easy connections to neighbouring Walkerville. The incentives include: Waiving municipal development fees, such as building permits and site plan control fees up to a maximum of $50,000 for new developments.
A residential development grant of $2,500 per unit to build two or more new housing units, and a doubling of the grant to $5,000 for “catalyst sites” mostly along Drouillard Road to encourage people to build housing in areas that really need improvement.
A retail investment grant that provides up to $15,000 per unit (to a maximum of two units) for fixing up the main floor of a building for retail uses.
And a property tax grant that encourages new development on underused properties by granting back the difference between the existing municipal taxes on a property and the increased taxes once it’s developed.
The property tax grant, which is paid out for up to 10 years, has been the biggest incentive in the downtown CIP. Investors there say it will save them millions, making their projects financially viable. A neighbourhood residential rehab grant which provides a matching grant of between $1,000 and $15,000 to help residents fix up the exterior of their buildings. Councillors lowered the threshold from $2,000 to $1,000 to make it more accessible to lower-income residents in the neighbourhood. A similar incentive plan in the existing Sandwich CIP has a $2,000 threshold that may be the reason that no one has ever taken advantage of it, councillors heard. Last year a similar residential rehab grant proposed as part of the downtown CIP was rejected by the majority of council, who contended it wasn’t fair to offer grants to residents in one area but not others. But this time, the residential grant was approved by the majority of councillors with Fred Francis, Hilary Payne, Irek Kusmierczyk and Paul Borrelli voting against. Ward 4 Coun. Chris Holt said he doesn’t see the residential grant program as a handout to one area versus another.
“I will support it in Ford City,” he said. “I supported it downtown and I’ll support it in Riverside when (its CIP) comes around.” Ward 8 Coun. Bill Marra said all of the components of the CIP are important, including the residential grants.
“This at the very micro level allows the neighbourhood to step forward and beautify the neighbourhood and be part of this broad solution.” Not everyone has the resources to renovate their homes, said Ward 2 Coun. John Elliott.
“I don’t see the problem with the city sometimes assisting with that, I think it’s a good thing.”