Tompkins County planning staff announce new housing grants round, hire David West to lead housing work

Tompkins County planning staff on June 4 introduced David West as the county’s new planning administrator for housing and community development and briefed the Housing and Economic Development Committee on current grant activity.

"I’m very happy to be back with Tompkins County," West said after being introduced; he said his recent experience included planning and economic development roles in Geneva and the town of Danby and that he expects to bring ideas and grant-administration experience to the county.

Staff reported two housing-affordability and infrastructure grant applications recently received — one from the City of Ithaca and one from the Town of Danby — and said they will present fuller briefings to the Legislature next month. Planning staff also closed the current Community Housing Development Fund round: seven applications requested a combined $1,600,000 and the fund currently has $3,070,000 available for awards.

Committee members asked for details about how the municipal affordability grants work. Planning staff described a small municipal assistance program that allows municipalities to request up to $5,000 in awards approved administratively by staff and up to $10,000 in requests that require legislative approval; this fiscal year’s budget includes $20,000 for that program. Staff said municipalities commonly use the funds to hire grant consultants to pursue larger competitive programs such as Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) awards and that small investments have been leveraged into substantially larger projects in the past.

No legislative votes on the grants were taken at the meeting; staff said fuller proposals and recommendations will be brought to the Legislature in coming weeks.