CRA holds workshop on grants

CRESTVIEW — The Community Redevelopment Agency Board of Commissioners made recommendations at the workshop meeting Monday for changes to specifics on different grants offered to developers.

Although no action was taken at the meeting, the commissioners discussed changing wording and requirements for different grants.

The list of grants included the following: mixed use residential and commercial development, asbestos mitigation, building code compliance upgrade, commercial investor property development, and facade and building improvement.

Applications were also listed with each description of the grants.

CRA Director Alisa Burleson said the goal of these grants is to give businesses an incentive to build in downtown Crestview.

"The purpose of having these grants are to encourage something that's not already happening downtown," Burleson said.

Burleson used the commercial investor property development grant as an example of this purpose. The goal of this grant is to cater to businesses that will stay open after regular business hours and on the weekends.

The funds for each grant come from what Burleson calls a "bucket." The funds are not specific to each grant.

This workshop meeting comes after the CRA voted on Aug. 27 to form a grant review committee that will make recommendations to the board of commissioners after reviewing grant applications in their meetings. The committee nominations are expected to be announced at the next meeting in September.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: CRA holds workshop on grants