FULTON – The Local Planning Committee met virtually for the first time yesterday, August 26, since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak to discuss four changes made to the final slate of Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects to propose to the state to approve.
One year to the month after Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the City of Fulton to announce it had been chosen to receive $10 million to revitalize its downtown area, the LPC is now in the final stages of getting the projects ready to present to the state.
The final slate was meant to be presented to the public in March, but plans were cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. There are now plans to virtually present the post-pandemic slate to the public, but the details are yet to be determined.
As of yesterday, the slate from before the pandemic is largely the same, however there have been four significant changes.
“I’m really happy to report that through all of the changes, we only had one project that was not able to follow through and stay committed to the DRI, and that project came off, but as far as the rest of them, we were able to keep all of the projects, which I think is a real victory – a real win considering all that’s happened with COVID,” said Mayor Deana Michaels.
With consideration of the pandemic, the grant fund, which was originally $600,000, was increased to $750,000. This fund is meant to help local businesses whose projects did not meet all the criteria for the DRI but would still like to get some grant funding.
“Due to the impacts of COVID-19, the state is allowing the fund to increase to $750,000… so that more local businesses can be helped and the type of projects that would be covered by the fund would be increased to include COVID-19 recovery and resiliency needs, including [personal protective equipment,” said Sara Oral of Cameron Engineering.
The second change made is to the Gateway Square project. The original plan was to knock down the building and create all open space. Now, the plan is to use the current building’s bones by taking out the walls and replacing the roof to create a pavilion for parking and events and turning the asphalt into open green space. There will be no change to the budget.
“This is just utilizing the bones of the existing building, but not the exterior that everyone agrees is an eye-sore, and creating parking and open space,” Oral said.
The third change is the Canalview Mall project. Due to the pandemic, the project sponsor has decided to pull the project from the slate altogether.
“This would be removing the Physical Therapy building from the Downtown Vibe project, which would actually reduce the DRI request by $30,000 because that’s how much would be attributed to that project,” Oral said.
The final change is to the project at 533 S. 4th St., also known as Building 30 or the “big pink building.” The initial plan for the mixed-use building was to grant funding for the first phase of the project, but the project sponsor would now like to try to get it all done in one go.
This would raise the DRI funding request from the original $916,000 to a total of $2 million which would be 17% of the total project cost. The building is meant to have apartments, commercial space and professional office space once it is completed.
The LPC began to vote on the increase and the first few had said no when Michael Treadwell suggested to instead make a compromise and meet them halfway with an increase of $500,000 for a total of $1.5 million. The LPC seemed more agreeable to this option and so the overwhelming majority voted yes, with a few members abstaining from the vote due to personal conflicts.
Considering the changes made, the LPC will now need to re-vote on the final slate.
To see the slate as of March 2 when the LPC voted on it initially before the pandemic, the story can be found here.
missing or outdated ad config
Where can we see a complete financial disclosure statement for all projects and members on LPC. The public needs to see what financial institutions will benefit from these projects. Also they need to see who belongs to what organizations and how the funding will impact them as employees of these organizations. I know the statements have been made and they may not join in any discussions and may not vote but just by being on the committee they influence the vote, and that is wrong. You just saw how one person’s idea just changed two votes and probably influenced all the other voters. Transparency, Transparency, Transparency is needed and required.