The final public meeting to consider the Community Improvement Plan (CIP) for downtown Millbrook is scheduled for next Tuesday, August 7th at the regular Council meeting. This is the final opportunity to provide input before the plan is submitted for approval.
This planning tool is designed to help drive economic growth in the downtown area by encouraging the revitalization of the area through offering financial incentives in the form of loans and/or grants to property owners and tenants to improve and redevelop public and private spaces with physical improvements that are often expensive. Municipal governments use these plans to rejuvenate an area which they deem to be in need of physical improvements due to age, dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement, or to achieve another environmental, social or community economic development need.
Plans are customized by each community, and ours has provided input through surveys, stakeholder workshops and public information sessions. The process identified some key local goals including façade and building maintenance and restoration; priority areas for redevelopment such as the vacant property across from the LCBO as well as the arena site; the attraction of specific types of businesses; the improvement or development of public spaces including gathering spaces; and improved linkages with the downtown core. Typical incentives included tax grants, grants for improvements to façades and signage and landscape, energy efficiency retrofits, accessibility improvements, building conversions, public art, and even grants for designs, studies and planning and permit fees.
Feedback so far suggests the highest priority projects will focus on façade, building, property and landscape improvement grants, followed by tax incentives for significant redevelopment projects which will likely focus on areas such as the arena location. Written submissions received by noon that day will also be considered. KG
