Urban Renewal Agency tightens downtown grant rules, creates scoring window; board approves 7–1

The Dallas Urban Renewal Agency on April 7 adopted revisions to its minor-improvement (renamed small-project) and building-improvement grant programs intended to concentrate limited grant dollars and steer investment toward new downtown businesses, upper-story housing, and projects that reduce vacancy.

Economic Development Specialist Tyler Ferrari told the board the programs have produced a strong public-private leverage ratio and that proposed changes reflect recommendations from the Urban Renewal District Advisory Committee. Key changes include renaming the minor improvement grant to “small project grant” and allowing up to $3,000 for professional services (architect, engineer) to help prepare larger applications; maintaining a $1,000 small-project award for minor improvements; and retaining a $75,000 budget target for building-improvement grants and $10,000 for small-project grants for the coming fiscal year (subject to council budget adoption).

For the building-improvement grant, the agency added explicit language that property taxes and all building permits must be current and closed before reimbursement. Projects that contribute to upper-story housing, bring new retail downtown, or have larger private matches will score higher; the program also adds zero-point “undesirable uses” (for example, non-fronting storage/drop-shipping operations) and requires contributing historic buildings to follow the Secretary of the Interior’s standards.

A significant procedural shift is a six-week application window. Staff will score all applications received in a window and present them together to the agency so the board can prioritize allocations rather than awarding funds on a first-come, first-served basis. Staff may open additional windows later in the fiscal year if funding remains.

Board discussion was robust. Director Shane voted no on final adoption. Director David (speaking as a former advisory-committee member) said he was concerned the 50-point minimum threshold and fixed windows could prevent the board from seeing marginal-but-promising projects; staff said applications that score below 50 will be returned with guidance and may reapply within the window or in a later window. Staff clarified that the building-improvement match requirement (historically 50%) remains; the small-project grant introduces a reduced match to encourage professional-service use.

The board moved to adopt the proposed guidelines; the motion passed 7–1 on roll call.