Red Deer’s Downtown Business Association has long talked about the importance of beautifying, revitalizing and developing the downtown.
Now, it’s putting its money where its mouth is by funding a pair of initiatives to the tune of $55,000.
The association has committed $30,000 to a Facade and Shopfront Improvement Fund, which it hopes will improve the curb appeal of downtown businesses.
Details of the fund and its administration are still being finalized, but DBA executive director Laura Turner said downtown businesses should be eligible for up to $5,000 in matching funds for work that improves the appearance of their building’s facade.
“It might be a coat of paint, new sign, new lighting, new awning,” she suggested.
The fund, she added, continues the “spirit” of the Red Deer Main Street Project — a provincial-municipal initiative administered by the DBA that provided matching grants to property owners who fixed up historic building facades.
Many that didn’t qualify under that program should be able to get financial support from the Facade and Shopfront Improvement Fund.
Turner hopes to have the program operational as soon as possible. It’s a pilot project, she said, that could continue if it’s successful.
“We may want to add more to the fund; we may have access to some grant monies — one really doesn’t know.”
The Downtown Business Association is also recommending to the City of Red Deer that a strategy for revitalizing and developing the downtown be formulated, and has agreed to pay 25 per cent of the cost of such a project, to a maximum share of $25,000.
Turner said that the city’s Greater Downtown Action Plan provides a long-term vision for the downtown, and a Commercial Market Opportunities Study adopted by council this summer offered details about the kind of development that could occur.
“I believe we need to connect the two,” she said. “We need something that gets us from where we’re at to where we want to be in a very strategic way. And that’s what we’re proposing.”
For instance, said Turner, consideration should be given to such issues as whether the city’s municipal development plan and land-use bylaw need to be amended, if incentives or disincentives should be used to influence development, how to attract and retain retail and other targeted uses, how to make the downtown more competitive, required infrastructure, where residential development should occur and the phasing of development.
“We’re looking for a comprehensive strategy,” summed up Turner.
She said the DBA has discussed the need for such a strategy with city officials and expects it to be considered during council’s budget deliberations early next year.
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com