Minutes 02/26/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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35? Fe~brll~r¥ 76~ lq~5 Mayor Holley opened the hearing with the following remarks: 'Tonight members of Redevelopment and Housing the City's proposed Urban the City Council a~e joined by the Commissioners of the Portsmouth Authority in order that we may hear your comments and suggestions Development Action Grant (UDAG) Application. on The Urban Development Action Grant will be used to provide low interest loans for the rehabilitation and new construction of structures within the Urban Enterprise Zone 6f the City. If approved, these grant funds will augment our plan to use tax exempt bond financing to encourage investment. Mr. Danny Cruce, Executive Director, Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority will give us a brief presentation on the proposal. After his remarks we invite citizens wishing to comment to do so. Following citizsn comments, I Will entertain questions or comments from City council Members or the Board of Commissioners." Danny Cruce, Executive Director of Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority, offere the following comments: "The objective of our proposal to seek funding through the Urban Development Action Grant Program is to provide additional incentives that will give existing and potential pro- perty owners located in the Enterprise Zone the impetus to initiate both interior and exterior ~mprovements to their establishmentss as well as undertake new construction activities. To accomplish this, the program is designed to bear 25% of the improvement costs through a long term 3% low-interest loan program which would be funded through an Urban Development Action Grant. We are extremely pleased with the interest that has been generated, particularly in light of the abbreviated time constraints we have beSn forced to work under. As you can see on the exhibit which denotes in blue rehab proposals and new construction in orange, we could experience a ma~or trans~omm~io~ of our downtown area in a short period of time. We have received proposals from property owners and developers, many of which are present tonight representing a total development cost of approximately $13 million. In all, 66 build- ings will be renovated and 10 new constructmon ~rojeCts undertaken consisting of 140 retail and office space uses and approximately 290 a~artmen~s. The majority of the apartments will b cre~ted in the vacant upper floors of the commeraial buildings on High Street. We estimated that these improvements will create approximately 40~ new jobs over the next few years. As I stated earlier, we are However, we would like to stress for all of the projects, so that that have been submitted. ~ery excited about ~he~interest that has been expressed. that we have not reqeived evidence of financial commitments the final application may not include all of the proposals Dan Swanson, who is the Community spending most of his time over the last gozng to present slides of the various this Program." Development Officer for the Authority and has been several weeks working with the property owners, is buildings that have been preposed to be renovated under Mr. Swanson presented slides or.the ~arious buildings. George L. Hanbury, City Manager, presented the ~ollowing statement: "The entire program submitted by the Housing Authority is an expansion of the existing program that Council adopted last year establishing the Enterprise Zone. Council and the public may be well aware that the Enterprise Zone, as well as the Priority Action Program and the Urban Renewal Program for the City of Portsmouth, all the property lines are the same and when Council adopted the Priority Action Program, it Was the EnterDrise Zone as well as the Urban Renewal Program. Consequently, for the first time in our hi~tory, the City, PRHA, and the private sector area 11 working on the same area at the same time, not only Economic Develo merit, commercial, residential, and industrial. With the incentives that City counCil adopted lalst year to attract expansion in the Hnterprise Zone, we have been tremendously successfull. A report will be released tomorrow between 1983-84 in the ~nterprise Zone that was discUlssed this evening. On the ~ity-wide basis investment activities, totaled $66.8 Miliionl. an~ cre~ed 784 j6bs;~Enterprise Zone ~nvestment ~cti~ity, totaled $8.2iMi~ti~n and created! ~85 job§~!' Robert Dolsey, 327 High Street, representing DowDtown Portsmout~ Association, stated that Portsmouth had unlimited potentials and supporte~ the UDAG Program. Councilman Beamer disclosed that he was affmlmat~d With the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and therefore, he would not participate in this matter. I Minister Rafiq Zaidi, 1311 Effingham street, PreSident of the Black/Sons Citizens of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton and Chesapeake, stated that imput for the poor black citizens had not been solicited. Mayor Holley responded that this was a public henring and all citizens were to participate in this hearing. No action was taken on the above item.