City officials got a preliminary draft of a new downtown revitalization plan Monday and will hear more from those who drafted it next month.
Ellen Harper, executive director of INVin, a not-for-profit looking to fill empty buildings on Main Street with news businesses, presented the plan, the first since 2006, that looks at how best to improve Main Street from First to 11th streets.
The plan is being paid for with a $40,000 state grant and local tax dollars and will put the city in a position to apply for a much larger grant later this year to help implement some of the changes called for, specifically facade improvements to downtown buildings.
“I'll be seeing a lot of you over the next couple of meetings,” she joked with the council.
The lengthy plan, Harper said, was sent to each of the council members via email for their review before their July 11 meeting when representatives of Bloomington’s Strategic Development Group will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. to discuss its contents.
Harper said the plan hits on several topics, everything from the city's history, its demographics, downtown properties in most need of repair and even the state of the local economy.
“There are several different pieces,” she told the group. “And it would be helpful if you would review it before July 11.”
The city council will likely approve the plan during the regular city council meeting that will follow at 6 p.m.
Officials will then immediately move forward with an application for another $500,000 grant to help as many as a dozen (or more) downtown property owners fix up the exterior of their buildings.
City officials held a public meeting in May to gauge interest from downtown property owners. Initially, nearly 40 came forward and expressed a willingness to participate.
Downtown property owners that are a part of the application will be required to put up a 20-percent match, and Indianapolis architect Pat Jacobs is helping INVin and city officials narrow the list of candidates down to those most suitable.
The grant application is due early this fall, and while the process is competitive, city officials have said they will do everything possible to make Vincennes' application as appealing as possible.
Harper said there is $1.5 million up for grabs, or enough to fund three applications.
“And we're keeping our fingers crossed that we are one of them,” Harper said.
A public hearing for that application, Harper said, will be held on July 25, and more information will be provided then on which downtown property owners have been selected to participate.
If the city is successful, work isn't likely to begin until this time next year.
In other business the city council voted to renew the city's Urban Enterprise Association for another year. Then, in 2017, UEA members can ask the state Indiana Economic Development Corp. for a second 5-year extension.
But UEA president Jim Zeigler said this will be the second time around for extensions for the UEA, and after these next two, the organization which provides a portion of tax dollars to property owners living within the Urban Enterprise Zone fix up their buildings, will be allowed to expire in 2022.
Recipients of UEA dollars include Procopio Palazzolo, the owner of Procopio's Pizza and Pasta, Veronica Kopp, the owner of Scruples, a women's boutique at 324 Main St., and Jim Osborne, curator and founder of the Indiana Military Museum, among many others.
The UEA also paid to construct Shirley's Pocket Park (named after city council president UEA board member Shirley Rose) in the 400 block of Main Street and have reimbursed homeowners along Second Street for exterior paint.
Mayor Joe Yochum on Monday called the UEA a “major development tool” for the city.