Work on the city’s Annual Action Plan for the year has begun at the Department of Development, and deputy development director, Kasie Foulk, recently talked with the Planning Commission at their March meeting about what that will entail for this year.

The plan is currently in the draft stage and once the final one is set a QR code will be available to take everyone to the survey page. The survey opens April 1 and runs until May 1.

The first public meeting will be April 1 and the teams meeting will be May 12 at 12 p.m. with a link that will be available to that on the website and Facebook. There will be a public hearing on May 18 before the voting session, with the vote on that being contingent on any public comment received during the public comment period which goes until the end of May.

Foulk then discussed what all is included in the Annual Action Plan.

“We reevaluate and update our local needs,” Foulk said. “We outline our specific goals. It represents our annual formal application to HUD, lists funded activities and specific amounts allocated and we must follow the three national objectives.”

There are very specific guidelines that the Department of Development has to follow to submit the Annual Action Plan to HUD. The first national objective is benefits to individuals who are income qualified. Foulk shared a chart with the commission from Fiscal Year 2025, as the 2026 chart has not yet been released. The chart looks at typical starting salaries for a person living in Jamestown and Chautauqua County.

“So when you think of affordability and why it matters, it’s because it impacts everyone, and not just people who have high needs in the community, which is a common misconception,” Foulk said.

The second national objective is aid in the promotion of safe and clean neighborhoods. Funds are put towards public engagement and crime prevention in the city, which also helps to increase beat patrols in the community. Foulk gave an example of needing extra police officers at events, which then the costs are then offset through funding from this, along with neighborhoods that may be in need of extra patrols. This objective also includes focusing on clean neighborhoods, such as with dumpster days or initiatives like Hands On Jamestown. It also pays for strategic code enforcement, with a single code enforcement officer, which Foulk said has a set amount that the DOD cannot change from year to year. Funding through this objective also goes towards handicap accessibility in public spaces.

The third objective for the Annual Action Plan funding is to help meet a need that has a particular urgency. This looks specifically at things like extra funding to help recover from a natural disaster like hurricanes.

“So if a tornado came through and we had a major emergency that destroyed the entire city we could file for emergency relief funds from CDBG,” Foulk said.

The Fiscal Year 2026 award from the Annual Action Plan has not been received yet, with the letter expected to come on March 30. This will tell the city the exact allocation from CDBG and HOME funding, but does not change the admin allocation. Foulk said the city usually receives around $1 million in total, and for CDBG 20% of that is taken off the top for admin and an additional 10% is taken for every project off of the project total funded through CDBG. 10% is taken off of the top for projects funded by HOME.

Some additional things that the DOD does with CDBG funds includes focusing on economic development; assisting small business development, infrastructure improvements, and matching funds for additional opportunities.

Projects for HOME Investment Partnership Programs focus on homeowner occupied rehabilitation, home redevelopment, first time homebuyers and Community Housing Development Organization funding.

Foulk then talked a bit about public comments, and how she likes to have them included in the system with HUD. She invited the planning commission to write down and submit any comments or ideas they might have and she would submit it with the plan for the year.

“We’re required to do this every year,” Foulk said. “We’re an entitlement city, so our funds are nearly guaranteed. … In the first week of June I will be submitting our final draft to HUD for approval and we’ll get funded shortly after that for our fiscal year.”

The draft will be available in May for review and comment, which will be available online on the city’s website and at the Prendergast Library. The commission briefly discussed the income information talked about with the first objective, which Foulk said the Chautauqua County median income is available on HUD’s website. The area median income can change, but the chart provided is the one the DOD goes off of, though it is not specific to Jamestown but rather the county. Foulk said they know people in the city fall well within the limits outlined on the chart.

“Because the whole city is a target area and the majority of our city does fall within these limits, we’re able to fund public spaces because it benefits everybody,” Foulk said. “So we have to gauge our projects based on that income.”