To get help, sometimes you have to first admit that you need it.
Looking into ways of attracting business and improving the city’s appearance, the Commerce Downtown Development Authority would like to commission the creation of an urban redevelopment plan and the identity of “opportunity” zones and “revitalization” zones.
There are two obstacles. The first is the $5,000 cost at a time when the budget is being cut, but it’s the second obstacle that is most challenging.
To qualify for grants to address opportunity zones or revitalization areas, the city council would have to publicly label areas as affected by slum, blight and poverty — not tags likely to be appreciated by the residents or owners of property in those areas.
DDA executive director Denise McKay and DDA members Chris Bulls and Johnny Eubanks attended the Georgia Academy for Economic Development where they heard a presentation by Monica Callahan, the Madison city planner, about how that city had utilized the redevelopment plan, opportunity zones and revitalization areas successfully.
The process is “council driven,” McKay pointed out last Wednesday morning, so the first order of business will be to sell the city council, of which Eubanks is a member, on the concept. Mayor pro tem Keith Burchett also attends the Georgia Academy for Economic Development, but he reportedly missed the presentation.
McKay is anxious to move on the project.
“It’s a huge amount of work,” McKay admitted, but she added that the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Council (RDC) will do most of the work. She also said that if the city moves quickly, it might be able to get help from the Department of Community Affairs.
The city must have the redevelopment plans to declare the opportunity zones and revitalization areas. Those designations provide incentives to businesses, such as a $3,500 tax credit for the creation of new jobs.
Still, the council must declare blight, slum and poverty.
“We need to make sure it’s in layman’s words,” Eubanks said. “You’ve got to say it’s slum and blight.”
“That will affect some people differently, people who live in those areas,” observed chairman Mark McCannon.
Eubanks proposed that the DDA bring Callahan in to explain to the council what Madison did and its benefits.
“They didn’t want to say the words, they didn’t want to do it, but once they did,” Eubanks said, “… The benefits far outweigh the costs. The bottom line is we need help with development. It’s coming to Commerce, but we don’t want it to go around us. If we keep saying everything’s OK, it’s not OK. If we don’t sell the city council and get them behind it, it won’t work.”
Eubanks proposed that the DDA visit Madison and be further briefed by Callahan, so when the council asks questions, “this group will be able to answer them.”
Bulls called Callahan’s presentation “quite impressive.”
“If we could get one third of what they got, it would be great,” Eubanks said, speaking of Madison. “We’re not Madison. We’ve got to be Commerce, but we can use some of their tools.”
McKay proposed that the DDA remove $2,000 from other line items to go toward covering the cost. Presumably, the city council would provide the other $3,000.
The project would give the city a better shot at grants, McKay explained later, including community development block grants.
“You’re more likely to get a grant if you have a clear plan of where you’re going,” she said.
