The City of Rensselaer is soliciting public input prior to submitting a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative application to the state.
As part of the city's "Rensselaer Rising" initiative, a pair of meetings to review the long range plan are set Tuesday and Wednesday. City Planning Director Thomas Hulihan says they will cap the yearlong brownfield opportunity area study.
"We have gathered transformative project ideas from 18 different stakeholders with a vested interest in doing development or making improvements onto properties within the city of Rensselaer," said Hulihan. "The projects total almost $200 million worth of projects, and they're seeking about $16 million from Downtown Revitalization Initiative Funding. The state provides 10 million worth of funding, and we just are looking for the public to help us to prioritize which projects they feel would be most transformative for the city of Rensselaer."
Hulihan believes the city's recent designation by the state of New York as a “Pro-Housing Community” will enhance its DRI application. Republican Mayor Mike Stammel agrees.
"We've already met criteria that the governor's put out about the housing shortage. So therefore, we're not bound to come up with more housing, but we have a lot of housing that's going on in the city of Rensselaer, as well. Which you know, as people, if they want to go from one place to live to another, they can do so, which should continue making housing more available to the public," Stammel said.
Last fall, New York Governor Kathy Hochul launched the "Pro-Housing Communities Program" to fast track $650 million in state funds to municipalities that demonstrate a commitment to increasing housing inventory.
The meetings are Tuesday from 3 to 6 at Rensselaer City Hall and Wednesday from 3 to 4 at the Rensselaer Public Library.
"We are going to have visioning boards with descriptions and photographs of the transformative projects that people can look at, review, rate and determine which ones they think are the most beneficial to the city and which ones they'd like to see move forward," said Hulihan. "And then we're going to ask them to review the projects as if they had $10 million to spend, and select the ones based on how much they're asking for until they get to the $10 million cap. And then we're also going to ask them to review our updated vision statement and let us know if they think that this is a good vision, the right vision for the city of Rensselaer, moving forward."
Hulihan says the city has put out a call for transformative projects to support in locations that include most of the brownfield study area and extend along the waterfront to the Hilton Park and Boat launch.
He adds data collected from public meetings will be included in the DRI application.
DRI, launched in 2016, is a New York State program that provides municipalities with$10 million in matching grant funding for capital improvement projects that revitalize downtown areas, such as new developments, building rehabilitation, or public space enhancements.
