Local property and business owners will soon be able to apply for the city’s Commercial Building Façade Grant Program at any time of year after the Philomath City Council voted unanimously Monday night to overhaul how the program is run.
The council also agreed to give EvenFlo Plumbing an extra two months to complete a façade project by moving its deadline to Nov. 19.
City Manager Chris Workman told the council that the program was originally designed to collect several applications at once, score them and fund the top three. In practice, that competitive model rarely came into play.
“We started this a few years ago and the original intent was to try to get multiple requests to come in at the same time so we could pick the top three of the five or six or seven or 10 applications we got,” Workman said. “What I found very quickly is that when business owners and property owners are ready to go, they’re ready to go and they don’t have time to wait eight months for the next round to start.”
Workman said property and business owners who weren’t ready when an application window opened would often abandon the idea altogether or spend their improvement money elsewhere by the time the next cycle came around.
Under the revamped program, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year rather than during defined windows. Instead of ranking projects against each other, the city’s Facade Grant Review Committee will simply determine whether an application meets a minimum threshold. Projects that qualify will be approved and applicants will have two years to complete their work. The city will still cap funding at three grants per year.
According to the staff report, the city has funded two facade projects to date — Dirt Road Brewing and Creative Graphic — for a combined $20,000. A third award was made but later withdrawn by the property owner. Two additional applicants have submitted preliminary paperwork and are waiting to move forward once approved.
Workman said the program’s review committee, which includes a city councilor, a planning commissioner, city planning staff and the Chamber of Commerce director, has worked well, and that the city’s contracted architect now meets directly with applicants to help incorporate the city’s “Timber Town” design theme into their projects.
“I think the program is good, it’s working,” Workman said. “The combination of the facade improvements and the new buildings we’re seeing is starting to take hold.”
Mayor Christopher McMorran raised a question that had come up in the city’s Public Art Committee, on which he serves as council liaison — whether the façade grant could be used to help fund public art, such as a mural, on a qualifying building.
“I thought that kind of made sense, but then I had not done a lot with it because we hadn’t talked about this,” McMorran said, adding that the program’s existing list of eligible improvements — including exterior painting and decorative details — may already cover the idea.
Workman said he didn’t want the grant extended to art unconnected to a building’s facade, such as something placed on a sidewalk, but that art tied to an approved facade project would likely qualify.
“This program is really specific about the street view of the building that people driving by are looking at in that facade,” Workman said. “I definitely wouldn’t want people to start targeting this program just for the murals. But if part of the project included the facade improvement and a mural or something like that, then it works.”
Workman noted that murals aren’t specifically addressed in the city’s development code and are typically treated similarly to signs, requiring a sign permit that he reviews and can approve or deny, with any denial appealable to the council.
The council ultimately amended the list of eligible façade improvements to add “and art” to the exterior improvements category.
Councilor Rich Saalsaa moved to extend EvenFlo Plumbing’s project completion deadline from Sept. 19 to Nov. 19. According to the staff report, EvenFlo was among the program’s original grant recipients and is now ready to complete its project, which qualifies for $10,000 in reimbursement funding, but needed additional time beyond its original two-year window.
Both the deadline extension and the program revamp passed 6-0 (one councilor absent).