Program excites city council

Sterling City Council members expressed excitement about the possibility of Sterling becoming an official Colorado Main Street community during a presentation Tuesday.

Traci Stoffel, Main Street specialist, and Larry Lucas, Main Street architect, spoke about the program during a council work session and were also at an open house earlier in the day attended by 30 interested community members.

“It was really exciting to see that many people in the first community meeting, I think it speaks highly of the interest of this,” Lucas said.

Founded in 1980, the Main Street Movement is a national program, existing in 46 states and focuses on economic development and historic preservation. In Colorado, there are 25 official communities throughout the state and 68 aspiring communities, including Sterling, who have expressed interest in being part of it.

“Becoming an official Main Street is a process, it takes some time,” Stoffel said, noting that part of the reason for that is because they want to know that communities are in it for the long haul.

Colorado Main Street is housed within DOLA (Department of Local Affairs). Being an official community in the program offers many benefits including minigrants starting at $2,500 per year, which allow communities to invest in tangible benefits, such as banners, benches, etc., and can also be used to leverage additional dollars. Other benefits include consulting services; education; scholarships; technical assistance; and networking opportunities.

While the focus of the program is on a community’s downtown area, City Manager Kevin Blankenship clarified that the city is able to identify “what that footprint is,” so the area can expand outside of Sterling’s designated downtown area to places like W. Main Street.

“For Main Street boundaries that you would define for the MOU (memorandum of understanding) for services and things like that that we can offer, that can be a little bit more flexible,” Lucas said. “It’s not like the National (Historic) Registry district where those are the actual boundaries, you guys have the flexibility to maybe go across the street in certain places, to extend down an Avenue in certain places where it makes sense to include businesses that are a longstanding business but also becomes part of that walkable core.”

There are four points of the Main Street approach: organization, promotion, design and economic vitality. Organization gets everyone working toward the same goal through community engagement; promotion entails marketing a positive image downtown and encouraging consumers and investors to live, work, shop, play and invest in the Main Street district; design means putting Main Street into top physical shape, from rehabilitating historic buildings to attractive window displays and landscaping; and economic vitality strengthens the existing economic assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base to create jobs, and respond to consumer needs.

To go forward, Sterling would need a vision, mission, strategic plan and work plan, which Main Street officials can help with. Stoffel noted that “it’s not about what the state wants for Sterling, it’s about what you want for Sterling, we just help you get there.”

Historic preservation is a large part of the Main Street program. Among the benefits of historic preservation are that it has created 29,000 jobs and generated $2 billion in economic impact in Colorado. Additionally, incentives such as the State Historical Fund, tax credits, low-interest rate loans and stacking funds can be appealing. Plus, communities can benefit from architectural assistance on staff at DOLA.

Councilman Albert Delgado asked about businesses that want to get involved but want privacy. Lucas said that would be honored and it was pointed out that Main Street officials don’t seek out business owners trying to get them to do projects, the way it works is business owners come to the area’s Main Street director because they want to do something with their building.

Delgado also asked if this includes infrastructure such as street and gutter improvements or just improvements to building facades. Lucas said in theory it’s all-inclusive because if the Main Street program can’t help businesses with something they might have counterparts that can.

While the council did not express commitment to move forward, there was excitement about it.

“I am excited about what you’re presenting here, I really am excited about what you’re doing and I think there’s some real potential here for us to make the change,” Delgado told Main Street officials, noting that the four new members who joined the city council after being elected last November all said they wanted change. “I think here’s a real viable way of creating that change.”