Livingston Seeking CDBG Funding For Facade Updates

Livingston will seek funding through a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for facade upgrades.

Downtown Revitalization Committee Chair Ray Evans said the grant could provide up to $100,000 in storefront improvements.

“We were very successful with our smaller program last year which was $15,000 total and $1,500 per application,” Evans said. “[We were] extremely successful there. We think with this additional money, we can make some really substantial changes to some of the storefronts.”

The grant will require a match from downtown businesses looking to participate in the program.

However, as Evans explains, that may not be an issue based on last year’s results.

“The thing that we loved about it the most was once [businesses] got into doing the storefront awnings, they said ‘well maybe we should… change our storefront to make it look more like it did when the building was originally built,'” Evans said.  “So we got a lot of spinoff improvements that weren’t funded necessarily. They were caused by the facade grant program, but they weren’t funded by the grant.”

Evans said some businesses spent upwards of $8,000 of their own money on top of their grant match in upgrades.

Livingston’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Monday to pursue the funding and submit the grant application.