Mapping out the plan
Local committee for Jamestown DRI has 149 responses
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Now that the city of Jamestown has been awarded $10 million from the state in Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding, the city is hard at work on the next steps, including a now open call for projects and the second meeting of the local planning committee.
The local planning committee met Wednesday afternoon at the Robert H Jackson Center. The committee is made up of representatives from multiple areas across the city, including; Mayor Kim Ecklund who co-chairs the LPC with Laura Smith from the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, Nathan Aldrich from the Chautauqua County Department of Planning and Development, Michael Edwards from the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, Kurt Eimiller of Slone Melhuish Insurance, Patricia Graves from the Project Management Institute, Daniel Heitzenrater with the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, Hillary Meyer from The Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, David Niles with the Robert H. Jackson Center, Anna Powell from the Chautauqua County Health Department, Patrick Smeraldo from Collaborative Children’s Solutions, Solimar Vazquez from the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and Joelle Washer with Northwest Bank. Other representatives from the city and state were in attendance at the meeting as well.
Stephanie Camay, DRI Lead Planning Consultant, began the meeting with a summary of what happened at the first LPC meeting, plans for Wednesday's meeting, and what is expected for the next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 30 at the Prendergast Library. A walking tour for the DRI was also Wednesday night, and a public survey is currently open until Sept. 25.
Hard copies of the survey will be available at St. Paul's and the Prendergast Library beginning next week, but otherwise the survey is available online. Camay said the survey is used to help identify community issues and opportunities and tie them to the DRI projects' vision and goals, and how projects are evaluated. They have received 149 responses so far, but Camay said they would like many more.
Besides the workshop and walking tour that was also held Wednesday night, representatives for the DRI will be at the farmer's market this Saturday along with the Whirlybird Festival.
Camay said the city's past DRI award started with the city's work on key investments like the National Comedy Center, which then led to multiple other projects through the DRI for downtown investment.
"That really showed the city's capacity to turn that investment and leverage additional funds," Camay said. "So that $10 million that was awarded in 2017 ended up leveraging over $56 million. That's really what DRI is about is pulling those other project investments into the downtown area."
Additional recent investment projects in the city besides the Comedy Center include Prendergast Landing, Furniture Mart and The Zone at the Northwest Arena. Other big projects for the city that connect to and help with the DRI projects include the Comprehensive Plan and other ongoing infrastructure and housing projects.
Camay then turned it over to Brendan Kelly, another member of WSP, the team helping the city with the DRI, who then spoke on the city's DRI 2.0 vision and goals. Goals reflect on some of the feedback that came from LPC members after their first meeting. The goals for the city's DRI 2.0 are; to grow the local economy and expand opportunities, expanding and improving downtown housing, reconnecting downtown to the Chadakoin River, creating a clean, safe and inviting downtown, making it easy and safe to walk, bike, or drive downtown, and strengthening downtown's identity as a cultural destination. Kelly then went over some strategies with the LPC on how they could achieve each of these goals. Each goal had three or four strategies each, drafted by the DRI core team.
Following the strategies, the DRI boundary was then discussed. DRI projects may be within or sit close to that boundary. An open call for projects to be considered under the DRI funding opened on Aug. 21 and runs until Sept. 24.
"The process for the open call is that everyone can submit a complete DRI form with assistance from consultants as needed by September 24," Kelly said. "Then applicants can submit a small project fund interest form for smaller or less traditional projects that coincides with the project form during the open call. Technical assistance and office hours are available during the open call by the consulting team."
The DRI project form is for projects greater than $75,000 in total project costs to be considered for funding directly from the state. For the Small Projects Form, the LPC has the ability to create a small projects fund, with interest forms being solicited during the open call for projects. These projects are smaller, less transformational projects with less than $75,000 in total project costs to be considered for funding through the city, who administers the fund. The small projects fund will be created by the LPC if they feel they get enough interest.
Eligible project types for DRI funding include public improvement projects such as streetscape or transportation improvements, new developments or rehabilitation of existing downtown buildings, the small project grant fund, and branding and marketing, downtown marketing projects that target residents, tourists, investors, developers and visitors.
As far as project requirements go, DRI projects must be able to break ground within two years and be completed in five years; the project sponsor must have an entity and not an individual who agrees to authenticate the project, such as an LLC or nonprofit; the project sponsor must have authority to undertake the project at that location; the project must have potential to transform the downtown area; the project must have a detailed budget and demonstrate they are able to leverage other funding besides DRI; some may be required to meet energy efficiency requirements; sponsors must finance all project costs prior to DRI and project completion; and projects must include a minimum of 25% non DRI funds. It was noted that projects should also have public support.
Assistance is available for potential project sponsors as they put together their applications. An in-person informational session was held Thursday, and a virtual information session is scheduled for September 1 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. To register for that or with any questions regarding potential projects, email Bob.Gibson@wsp.com.
Camay then went over the characteristics of a strong DRI project, such as having a well-defined scope, sponsors that demonstrate their capacity to implement the project, evidence of strong public support, a clear community and economic benefit, evidence of market demand, the project must be financially feasible, show they have the necessary funding, and must show the project can transform the downtown area.
"The projects do not necessarily have to have all of these pieces, but we would like them to show most of these pieces," Camay said. "This is really showing a strong DRI project."
Camay then addressed moderate or weak DRI projects, or projects that they might have to do a little more work with the applicant on. It is recommended that the city show a strong DRI slate of projects, and that the request should actually hit $12 to $15 million, so that if the strongest project were to drop off they would still hit the awarded $10 million. Projects should also be a mix of public, private and nonprofit projects.
Camay then briefly discussed both state and local evaluation criteria for the projects before again mentioning the next steps for the city's DRI. The open call for projects runs until September 24, and the next LPC meeting is scheduled for Sept. 30 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Prendergast Library, with the public invited to attend. The meeting ended with the opportunity for public comment.
More information on the city's DRI and upcoming events, along with project submission forms and the public survey can all be found at JamestownDRI.com.