Title
Historic Structure Protection (B)
This is a request for the City Commission to approve the Historic Stabilization Fund program.
Explanation
Following the demolition of Jack’s Bar, on August 4, 2011, a motion was made by Commissioner Mastrodicasa to refer to the Community Development Committee a program to protect historic structures. On October 25, 2011, the Community Development Committee made a motion to create an interdepartmental process that would identify and manage the neglect of historic structures and identify paths of stabilization and financing.
Updates were provided to the Community Development Committee on August 27, 2012 and November 27, 2012.
On May 29, 2013, the Community Development Committee (CDC) recommended, as a part of the budget process, to set $30,000 aside for gap financing and to address stabilization issues of historic structures as a pilot program to start in 2014. This will be known as the Historic Stabilization Fund (HSF) program.
The CDC asked that the following recommendations be incorporated into the Historic Stabilization Fund (HSF) program. The program will be limited to houses in the Pleasant Street Historic District that are on the Code Enforcement violation map. Properties with code violations should be a priority for the stabilization funds. Additional properties may be identified and included on the map by Code Enforcement as violations occur. Eligibility should prioritize owner occupants and investors with occupants/tenants. The HSF program will provide loan funding of up to $5,000 for a period of up to 10 years. The program allows for forgiveness of the funding. The house would need to be occupied for 8 years (of the 10) for full forgiveness. This allows for up to 2 years for construction and/or rehabilitation. Anything less than 8 years would be forgiven on a prorated basis.
The date of the Historic Stabilization Fund (HSF) is anticipated to be July 1, 2014 and will end on September 30, 2014.
A further rec...
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