Submitted By
Tammie Grossman, Director, Development Customer Services
Reviewed By
A.M. Zayyad, Deputy Village Manager
Agenda Item Title
Title
A Resolution Approving and Adopting Amendments to the Village of Oak Park’s Commercial Façade Improvement Grant Program Guidelines
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Overview
Overview
The current Village of Oak Park Commercial Façade Improvement Program (C-FIP) was established by the Village Board in 2018. The purpose of the program is to promote reinvestment in Oak Park commercial buildings. Since 2018, the Village has awarded twenty (20) grants to Oak Park businesses or commercial property owners in support of the installation of new awnings, signage, windows, doors, and lighting improvements. The C-FIP has been in place for fifty-nine (59) months and was amended once, expanding program eligibility, in 2019. This proposed resolution is recommending several amendments to the program’s guidelines that will allow for the continued expansion of C-FIP program eligibility.
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Recommendation
Recommendation
Approve the recommended resolution or request additional information from Village staff.
Background
The current Village of Oak Park Commercial Façade Improvement Program (C-FIP) was established by the Village Board in 2018. The purpose of the program is to promote reinvestment in Oak Park’s commercial buildings. In particular, the existing guidelines allow the participation of business or commercial property with primarily first-floor “sales tax generating” storefronts. Per existing guidelines, business or building owners must either currently be able to document that retail sales comprise at least 51% of the first-floor business gross revenues or that the business generates significant combined municipal sales tax and home-rule sales tax that equals at least $15,000 a year and over.
Since 2018, the Village has awarded twenty (20) grants to Oak Park businesses in support of the installation of new awnings, signage, windows, doors, and lighting improvements. The commercial property owners or businesses that have utilized the program since 2018 can be found on the attached spreadsheet entitled “2018-2023 C-FIP Projects.” All of these projects have significant retail sales tax-generating businesses on the first floor. The goal is that these façade improvements help the businesses to generate additional sales tax that, in turn, supports the Village’s general revenue fund. In summary, since 2018, the Village’s completed façade improvement projects have been accomplished at twelve (12) restaurants and eight (8) general retail establishments.
The C-FIP has been in place for fifty-nine (59) months and was amended first in 2019 to expand program eligibility. This proposed resolution is recommending the two program amendments listed below, in order to continue expanding program eligibility, along with several minor grammatical adjustments to improve clarity.
Recommended Amendment #1 - Expanding program availability on North Avenue and Roosevelt Road in support of the 2021-2023 Village Board goals, subsection “Neighborhoods” numbers 2a. (North Avenue) and 2b. (Evaluate Roosevelt Road progress and review opportunities for further investment).
Because two of the main focuses of the Village’s C-FIP are to improve the facades of commercial buildings and to increase sales-tax generation, there is a long-standing guideline that requires applicants for the program to meet the requirement that retail sales comprise at least 51% of the first-floor businesses gross revenues. This is a good guideline and it has resulted in major improvements for retail sales-tax-generating businesses throughout the Village. Staff believes this guideline should be kept in place for the majority of the community. However, the Village Board’s current goals encourage continued progress and investment in both North Avenue and Roosevelt Road. In response to these two goals, staff is recommending that the long-standing guideline requiring program participants to be significant sales-tax generating retail businesses be waived and instead, make the façade improvement program available to all commercial buildings on both Roosevelt Road and North Avenue. The result of this waiver will be to further expand the program's availability and make grants more widely available to licensed commercial businesses and commercial property owners on both Roosevelt Road and North Avenue.
Recommended Amendment #2 - Expand program availability throughout the entire business community by lowering the project investment requirement from a minimum of $5,000 to $4,000.
Currently, the minimum total investment required for a C-FIP improvement project is $5,000, meaning the grant recipient could qualify for $2,500 (50%) in reimbursement funding. Village staff is recommending increasing the availability of this program to businesses with smaller projects by lowering the minimum total investment required for a C-FIP improvement project to $4,000, meaning the grant recipient could qualify for $2,000 in funding. The maximum reimbursement would remain the same. The Village’s C-FIP project allows qualified grant applicants to receive up to $5,000 per façade, which, of course, would require an investment on the grantees part of at least $10,000. Village staff has noticed inquiries for projects that are closer to the $4,000 range over the past year.
Fiscal Impact
There will be no financial impact as a result of this recommended change to the Commercial Façade Improvement Program (C-FIP) guidelines. The Village’s C-FIP has an annual budget of $40,000 out of General Fund line-item 1001-46260-101-585651. The program is a first-come first-served program. There has never been a year, since the programs re-start in 2018, that the Village has had program applications that exceeded that year’s budget. Village staff believes that the guideline changes that are being recommended will ensure that more of the annual program budget is fully utilized. Over the course of the six years this program has been in place, the annual C-FIP budget has ranged from $40,000 to $50,000.
DEI Impact
The grants thus far have supported smaller, minority, and women owned businesses in the edification of their business. Overall, this grant program creates a pathway to support businesses that may be in need which allows for the continuation of Oak Park’s businesses to attract diverse populations.
Alternatives
Do not approve the amended program guidelines and, therefore, do not expand the number of businesses eligible to participate in the C-FIP.
Previous Board Action
The Village Board re-established the Village of Oak Park’s Commercial Façade Improvement Program (C-FIP) by resolution (18-906) on June 4, 2018. Then, the Village Board made minor adjustments to the original program guidelines by resolution (19-313) on October 21, 2019. These are the only two previous Village Board actions related to the Oak Park C-FIP.
Citizen Advisory Commission Action
N/A
Anticipated Future Actions/Commitments
N/A
Intergovernmental Cooperation Opportunities
N/A