The Town of Fort Frances is rolling out a new community improvement plan (CIP) and, with it, financial incentive programs (FIP) aimed at aligning the goals of the municipality with its residents and businesses.
A community improvement plan is a coordinated effort by a municipality to target economic development in specific sectors where needed. Offering financial incentives to residents and businesses, it is intended to encourage members of the community to take part in and work towards goals held in common with the town.
Council has approved a draft of the new CIP, which is intended to replace the municipality’s existing CIP from 2003.
“The CIP is meant to be an economic development plan as a whole for the town,” Building and Planning Superintendent John Burrows told The Times. “We have initiatives for infrastructure, better accessibility, more industry and for collaboration.”
When looked at broadly, the CIP can be separated into two main categories: business and residential.
Business
The CIP aims to assist with costs of improvements to commercial and industrial properties. Up to a maximum of $20,000 will be available for businesses to apply for assistance with retrofits, landscaping, paving and streetscape enhancements.
Similarly, incentives are planned to help with commercial renovations; the town is planning to offer grants up to a maximum of $15,000 for qualified business start-ups in existing vacant building ground floors.
Businesses will also be able to apply for the Energy Efficiency Improvements Grant, which is being used to encourage owners of existing buildings to improve efficiency and facilitate installation for small-scale renewable energy systems. Grants of this type will cover up to a maximum of $10,000.
There is also the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Grant, which aims to improve site security at downtown businesses.
“That can be through gated entrances, cameras, alarm systems, fencing, cleaning of property and changing lighting schematics around the property, so that it is not only is it welcoming, but it allows for more passive crime prevention of downtown businesses,” Burrows said.
The CPTED would assist up to a maximum of $7,500.
All of the above grants are aimed at covering up to 50 per cent of costs to the maximum associated with them.
Residential
To encourage the introduction of new residential units and to improve the condition of existing ones, grants are planned to assist with up to 50 per cent of building and restoration costs to a maximum of $10,000 per eligible residential unit created.
Grants supporting multi-unit development will also be available to assist in work associated with bringing in complexes of at least four residential units, with 25 per cent of units being considered affordable. This grant is planned for up to 50 per cent to a maximum of $5,000 per unit and $10,000 per affordable unit.
For costs of developing additional units on the same property as single detached, semi-detached, or townhouse dwellings, grants up to 50 per cent to a maximum of $10,000 per additional residential unit will be available.
“Any single detached dwelling property or house property is permitted, as of right to have two accessory dwelling units, subject to zoning and building permit approval,” Burrows said.
Eligible cost items for all of these residential grants can include plans, designs, studies, materials and construction.
Although council has endorsed the draft CIP, several procedural steps remain before the document can take legal effect. Under Ontario’s Planning Act, a community improvement plan must proceed through the required public consultation process and be formally adopted by council through a bylaw before its incentive programs and policies can be implemented.
The timing could prove significant, as municipal voters head to the polls on Oct. 26 and the current council is now operating under Ontario’s “lame duck” provisions. Once a council enters the restricted period, its authority to make certain financial and administrative decisions is limited.
While the draft CIP has received council’s endorsement, the final steps required to bring the document into force will ultimately fall to the incoming council after it is sworn in November.
The list of proposed grants for both residential and business opportunities goes far past what has been touched on above; for full details of eligibility and available grants, view the final version of the new community improvement plan on the Town of Fort Frances website at www.fortfrances.ca
