Revitalization Committee Agenda and Packet 2023 08 23

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Revitalization Commission Minutes July 12, 2023 Page 5of8 explore collaboration with the Cultural Council about how the URA can support Cultural Arts in the City. The City Manager noted that LRC should identify locations and funding for public art. He also mentioned that the Cultural Council has a public art process, so coordination with that process is important. A resolution will be coming to City Council soon to rename the cultural council and reduce the number of members to seven. Once the resolution is approved, the positions will be advertised. The Cultural Council is currently focused on summer season events and there are only three members at present. Commissioner Comments: see comments incorporated into each topic above. Public Comment: Mike Kranzdorf commented on the vacant building discussion. It can be hard to know what to invest in for the owner, even simple things, because you don't know what kind of tenant you are going to get. Also, the agreement you sign says you have to keep it in place for 3 years so it's tricky to incentivize. It can be difficult to know what a landlord is trying to do and it might look like they aren't doing anything to fill their space when the issue might be due to multiple defaults on letters of intent. The idea of penalizing the owner for vacant space is offputting. Commissioner Williams asked what a reasonable time would be? I have been 2 years in Lafayette with 20 possible tenants that all fell through. Mike had a question about arts and culture, if are there any concerns about funding things that have indirect benefit per the charter of the LRC. For example, Steinbaugh would not be direct economic benefit. If a property owner wanted to create a community space, how would that work? The City Attorney noted that it's worth examining. The LRC has funded several programs that the connection between addressing blight and the actual funded project are more attenuated than direct support of improvements. LRC considers whether it brings visitors downtown, lessening the possibility of vacancies, for example. There's some question as to whether it is something LRC should find to be an objective. Funding and addressing blight has been defined pretty broadly in that authority and we haven't seen any URA being challenged around addressing blight. The Director of Community Development noted that, from a policy standpoint, if the city started with infrastructure investment, which evolved to direct TIF assistance. The Fagade Program is first time we went with direct private assistance without TIF assistance to improve downtown for private property. A member of the public asked if the alfalfa community outdoor space was supposed to have culture as part of it. It's unsure if LRC funded any of that outdoor space. He noted that 30-35 years ago we talked to the City about public art and nothing has really been done while Lafayette did a great job with their public art program. Art is important and we need to support it. For the vacant building discussion, any punitive programs right now would be antithetical to trying to get people to invest in properties in Louisville. It takes a lot of money, usually a lot more than properties can generate in return, and costs of construction are very high. Incentives are a better way to get things done. Agenda Packet P. 7