The city's Community Development Block Grant allocation for the current federal fiscal year will fund 17 projects, but population declines have disqualified some areas formerly eligible for funding.
The city said they have fallen below U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development population requirements for CDBG eligibility. Updated Census information showed some Census tracts have a critical mass of unoccupied dwelling units, putting them below HUD's occupancy threshold for eligibility. Most of the city's CDBG eligible areas are in Hot Springs Board of Directors districts 1 and 2 in the north and central parts of the city.
The city said eligibility is conditioned on 51 percent of a Census tract's dwelling units being occupied by low to moderate income residents, which HUD defines as those with incomes at 50 to 80 percent of the area's median.
The annual action plan for fiscal year 2019 the Hot Springs Board of Directors will consider tonight does not include $11,700 for amenities at the Rev. James Donald Rice Pocket Park, which the Community Development Advisory Committee ranked eighth on the prioritized list of 21 projects the board approved in February. The city said the park is in an area that has fallen below the occupancy threshold.
A grand opening for the park honoring Rice, the former president of the NAACP's Hot Springs chapter and a leader in the integration of the Hot Springs School District, was held last week. The city said $38,000 in fiscal year 2018 CDBG money awarded to the park has been spent.
The park project's disqualification from the 2019 prioritized list moved $9,636 for a crosswalk in the 900 block of Malvern Avenue into the list of 17 projects that will receive funding from the city's $450,010 allocation. The city received $456,368 for the previous fiscal year and $389,255 for fiscal year 2017.
The 2019-2023 consolidated plan the board will consider tonight listed stabilization of the Gateway and Langston Gardens neighborhoods east of upper Malvern Avenue as a priority. The plan said occupancy rates in parts of the two neighborhoods have decreased by more than 50 percent in the last 17 years, making them ineligible for CDBG funding.
Many of the vacant structures were willed to heirs who reside out of town, the plan said. Encouraging them to rehabilitate the structures or occupy them has been a challenge. The city has intervened in many instances, condemning and demolishing unoccupied structures that have become nuisance properties. Recent annual action plans have awarded the city's neighborhood services division CDBG funds for blight abatement, including $40,000 in the annual plan the board will consider tonight.
The five-year consolidated plan said the western portion of the Gateway Neighborhood is inside a Census tract the governor designated as an Opportunity Zone last year. The designation qualifies investments in the area for favorable tax treatment, deferring or exempting federal capital gains taxes on profits generated by the investment.
"(The designation) may attract investors to redevelop Malvern Avenue vacant surface lots and adaptively reuse underutilized structures," the five-year plan said. "The primarily residential Pleasant Street National Historic District is also part of an Opportunity Zone and eligible for historic tax credits."
Hot Springs is one of more than 1,000 communities that qualify for CDBG funds allocated according to a formula that considers population, housing stock and income statistics. Annual funding is contingent on adoption of a five-year consolidated plan.
The plan the board will consider tonight continues to focus on infrastructure improvements, maintaining the shift from home rehabilitation that began in 2014. The following projects will receive fiscal year 2019 funding:
1. Planning and administration, $45,000.
2. Linden Park restroom replacement part two, $50,500.
3. Design plans for Malvern Avenue improvement project, $43,500.
4. RA Psychle 4C public service, $42,303.
5. Spot blight nuisance abatement, $40,000.
6. East side Park Avenue sidewalk improvements, $41,132.
7. Ouachita Children's Center bathrooms, $50,063.
8. Habitat for Humanity -- Restore ADA accessibility ramp, $3,740.
9. Hobson and Lacy streets bus shelter, $11,000.
10. Ouachita Behavioral Health and Wellness bus shelter, $11,000.
11. Hobson and Linwood streets sidewalk improvements, $21,014.
12. Habitat for Humanity -- Watt Street waterline, $5,350.
13. Habitat for Humanity -- removal of Garland Avenue retaining wall and lot preparation, $9,000.
14. Arbor Street improvements -- $13,389.
15. Dell and Ravine streets drainage improvements, $42,121.
16. Cedar Street sidewalk improvements Phase 2, $10,261.
17. Malvern Avenue crosswalk at Silver Street, $9,636.
Local on 06/18/2019