Council approves incentives for downtown buildings
City Street Superintendent Chris Ubben readies to dump a large load of trash into a dump truck on the city’s north side last week during junk removal days. See this and other photos at www.humboldtnews.com. Humboldt Independent photo by Kent Thompson.
By KENT THOMPSON
Humboldt City Administrator Travis Goedken mentioned Monday the Humboldt Downtown Revitalization Project is not just about improving traffic safety and putting in sidewalks and streetlights.
It is also about getting landowners and businesses to become actively involved in the revitalization efforts by rehabilitating and renovating their buildings.
To that end, on Monday, the Humboldt City Council approved a Central Business District Urban Renewal Area Incentive Grant Program. The unanimous decision did not come without a large amount of debate and discussion. Some original ideas were scrapped, while others were expanded upon.
After much discussion, the Council agreed to remove an upper story residential rehabilitation incentive as an eligible project and agreed to leave the roof repair grant at $5,000 with a one-to-one match and building façade grant at $3,000 with a one-to-one match.
The Council did approve increasing the currently in place façade grant program from the current matching maximum of $1,000 to $2,000.
So theoretically, an applicant could receive funding from both building façade grants for a maximum of $5,000 total.
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