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Friendswood leaders credit decade of volunteer and public investment for downtown turnaround
Summary
Friendswood officials and volunteer leaders on the "Bringing Back Main Street" program described a decade of downtown revitalization, citing a 1/8-cent downtown sales tax, $2.8 million in TxDOT sidewalk funding, a $2.35 million lighting project and new businesses that have grown the downtown tax base.
Friendswood leaders and volunteer organizers on Thursday laid out the results of more than a decade of downtown revitalization, saying a combination of private fundraising, a local 1/8-cent downtown sales tax and grant partnerships has produced new businesses, public art and infrastructure improvements.
Mayor Mike Foreman opened the event by welcoming the Houston-Galveston Area Council gathering to Friendswood and describing how local volunteer efforts—spurred in part by community concern over the appearance of the downtown—led to renewed focus on Main Street. "We were able to find money for this kind of stuff, make our downtown look better," Foreman said in his remarks.
Brett Banfield, a local developer who helped form the Friends of Downtown Friendswood Association (FDFA) in 2015, said the group pushed for a dedicated funding stream and supported the city and a downtown economic…
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