City staff briefed councilmembers on the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and said Oakland County has restricted the number of outside organizations that may receive subgrants from Berkley’s annual allocation, reducing the pool of potential recipients.

Staff said Berkley has accumulated roughly three years’ worth of unspent CDBG funds (staff estimated roughly $100,000) and intends to fold those dollars into larger multi-year public projects — notably an ADA-related corner and crosswalk project and other accessibility improvements — rather than smaller one-off grants. Staff explained the county reduced the number of eligible recipient organizations because of administrative burdens associated with many small awards, and that CDBG-funded capital projects require multi-year planning, federal procurement steps, and Davis-Bacon wage considerations.

Councilmembers asked whether CDBG funds could pay for accessible improvements inside public facilities; staff said the funds pay for public-facing improvements and that specific projects and cost-allocations would come back in CIP detail. Staff also noted that other eligible uses, such as code-enforcement activities in qualified areas, are not feasible for Berkley because the city does not have a designated low-income neighborhood that meets the county’s criteria.

No appropriation was made at the April 28 session; staff said they will return with project-level scoping and a plan to maximize the city’s CDBG allocation across multi-year projects.