Governor Jack Markell unveiled his plan to revitalize downtowns throughout Delaware during a three-county tour Wednesday, that featured stops in Wilmington, Dover and Bridgeville.
The Downtown Development Districts program would set aside $7 million for grants to towns and cities that apply to have areas in their downtowns designated as development districts. The first year of the proposal would fund 1-3 district, with one required in each county. Eventually, there could be as many as 15, depending on available funding.
Markell, who introduced the idea in January's State of the State address, says cities around the state face many of the same problems like population decline or crime.
"We can’t be thinking about these issues as Dover issues, or Wilmington issues or Seaford issues. These are Delaware issues and we’ve got to work together to solve them," said Markell.
The grants would provide for-profit or non-profit investors with up to 20 percent of construction costs in the designated areas.
State agencies would also offer incentives, prioritizing infrastructure projects in those areas or fast-track permitting.
"The grant is obviously really important, but this is bigger than just the grant" said Markell. "This is cutting across DelDOT. I could cut across DNREC. It could cut across the State Housing Authority. So, the question is how to we make sure all of our state agencies, the private sector and others are all aligned in support of renovation of the cities."
Markell adds the plan is flexible enough to allow private capital to make each city’s approach to downtown revitalization unique.
Ann Marie Townshend is Dover’s city planner and also works with the Downtown Dover Partnership. She says Dover faces a dual problem of crime and building vacancy, issues that often influence each other.
She thinks the governor’s plan can help to combat both.
"We’ve been very active in our city demolition because these vacant abandoned properties are causing such problems for the character of the community. But obviously demolishing a building doesn’t put something back that’s functioning, it just gives you a vacant lot. It might abate that nuisance, but we still want to see these properties redeveloped," said Townshend.
In Wilmington, City Councilman Darius Brown sees the program helping build up housing in neighborhoods around Wilmington's downtown that can fuel further economic development.
“It literally connects the neighborhoods to Downtown. Downtown is a neighborhood, but it’s also surrounded by older neighborhoods like the East Side, and West Center City and Quaker Hill," said Brown. "So we’re looking holistically at how we can revitalize the whole area and provide opportunity for individuals to live in the city of Wilmington."
Markell says he sees the proposal boosting a downtown recovery already underway in Delaware and elsewhere.
"For a long period of time downtowns were losing population, there was sort of a mass exodus to the suburbs. But what we’ve seen over the past 10 years or so is that that’s changing and people are moving back into the cities, we think that’s really promising, and we want to accelerate that trend here," said Markell.
The plan must be approved by the General Assembly. Markell and bill sponsors are optimistic the support is there for the initiative to pass legislation creating the Downtown Development Districts.
