(2/24) Following months of give and take between the Town staff and the Town Council on establishing more robust criteria for determining what was the best use of State Legacy Grant funds, the Town’s Sustainable Communities Work Group (SCWG) met to consider this year’s applications.

The central issue the Town Council has struggled with was the failure of the SCWG to differentiate between requests to help fund actual facade improvements that will help restore the historical feel of the town, and requests to fund routine home maintenance items that all property owners are expected to carry out.

The Council questioned the appropriateness of funding of such items as roof replacements, especially when the portions of the roof are on the back of homes, or to the painting of porch ceilings and floors, activities that would only benefit the homeowner, not the general public.

The Council requested that criteria to this end be documented in a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The Council rejected the initial draft of the SOP because it failed to address many of the Council’s requests.

The revised SOP was ‘conditionally’ approved in late 2023 based upon the commitment by the Town staff to add in additional criteria – including the differentiating between façade ‘upgrades’ and ‘routine maintenance.’ The Council also requested that the SOP also included a clause giving the Council veto authority over any grants approved by the SCWG.

The Council only agreed to the conditional approval based upon the staff’s warning that unless the SOP was approved, the SCWG would be unable to review applications in time for this year’s grant cycle and thereby put at risk this year’s $50,000 in State grant funds.

As currently written, the SOP now requires applicants to document how their projects enhancement economic sustainability and improve the visual appeal within the Town’s designated sustainable community areas.

Funded through the Maryland Dept. of Housing and Community Development, the program provides 50% matching grants for exterior facade improvements, with the property owner paying the other 50%. The SCWG is tasked with evaluating, prioritizing and recommendation of the awarding individual grants.

At its February meeting, the SCWG reviewed eight applications totaling $67,161. A request from the Methodist Church for $12,500 for roofing was deemed ineligible, as it is a religious organization.

Five applications totaling $30,161 for roofing, siding, and window replacement were approved. However, one approved grant for $1,650, for a flat roof behind a house, appears to violate the approval criteria, as it cannot be seen by the general public.

The SCWG put on hold a request for $12,000 to replace garage doors and gutters on a rental property, because the property does not look like the property it is being maintained at all right now. The SCWG suggested Town staff contact the owner of the property about the lack of current maintenance.

Another application, for $12,500, for the replacement of gutters and downspouts was returned to the applicant after the SCWG expressing reservations that the project would not improve the façade of the house.