Citizens Advisory Committee reprograms CDBG funds for facades, streets and parks; approves grants for local services

The South Gate Citizen Advisory Committee voted Thursday night to reprogram leftover Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars across several prior program years, approving a street resurfacing award and reallocating commercial-façade money toward parks and public-service projects.

The committee approved a staff recommendation to allocate $752,540 in CDBG funding to the Residential Resurfacing Project Phase 4, including substantial work on Industrial Avenue adjacent to the recently opened Holiday Inn Park, drainage and sidewalk repairs, and ADA modifications. Kenneth (Public Works superintendent) told the committee, “We're gonna be getting 752,540,” and described milling, overlay and associated construction sequencing for the resurfacing work.

Why it matters: the city is under federal timeliness pressure for CDBG spending, and staff told the committee that consolidating smaller leftover balances from multiple action-plan years into specific ready-to-bid projects will help the city clear backlogged allocations.

Committee members also voted to reduce the size of the commercial-façade program being proposed in the substantial amendment and to consolidate remaining façade funds into a single program account. During debate, staff described the façade initiative as a proactive combination of commercial-sign and façade grants that would encourage businesses with code violations to update signs and do deferred-maintenance work; interim community development director Dave Crabtree said the proposal “is taking from all of these years primarily from previous smaller amounts that were left from the commercial facade program.”

Public comment and parks requests: multiple residents urged the committee to direct money to parks. Mario Dominguez Jr., identifying himself as “a resident of Southgate,” asked the committee to “allocate…