Wheeling City Leaders Hope Expanding the Facade Improvement Program Will Lead to More Downtown Investments
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WHEELING -- Wheeling city leaders hope the expansion of the city's popular Facade Improvement Program will help spark more private investment in neighborhoods throughout the Friendly City.
Members of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a resolution allowing building owners in commercial districts outside of the Central Business District to take advantage of the program.
The Facade Improvement Program was introduced in Wheeling four years ago. Since then, several private sector building owners have utilized the program, which provides a city match of up to $15,000, depending on the project cost. The initial program had been limited to the downtown area, in the Central Business District, or in a designated historical district in the city.
City officials have recently been working on plans to open the door to this program in other areas of town.
"The Facade Improvement Program has been very successful over the last few years," Vice Mayor Chad Thalman said.
"I'm excited to be able to expand it to every neighborhood in the city and help local businesses and building owners who may still be recovering from the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic."
With the expansion of the program, privately owned commercial buildings within the C-1 and C-2 zoning districts in the city will be eligible to apply for funding assistance. Applications will be subject to design review.
Tom Connelly, director of Building and Planning for the city of Wheeling, explained that structures that met eligibility prior to the expansion -- buildings in the Central Business District as well as any property, residential or commercial, in a qualified historic district -- will remain eligible for participation.
The list of regulations, application forms and zoning maps are all available on the city's website at www.wheelingwv.gov/facade, Connelly noted.
"Eligible upgrades to the primary facade include exterior building improvements, signage and roof repairs or replacements," Nancy Prager, director of Economic and Community Development Nancy Prager said. "The purpose of the Facade Improvement Program is to support the revitalization of the city by stimulating private investment in high-quality improvements that enhance the appearance of buildings and properties and eliminate blight and non-conforming design standards."
A five-person committee will review applications and then make recommendations to the Development Committee of Wheeling City Council. The committee will subsequently make a recommendation to the full city council, which has final approval of selected projects applying for participation in the city's Facade Improvement Program.
Prager noted that a new application review process will be utilized moving forward. Previously, the applications were reviewed on a rolling basis, but now they will be accepted on a quarterly basis for review and approval in a more competitive format. New quarterly deadlines for submissions will be upcoming next month on May 28, followed by the next deadline this summer on Aug. 27.
When considering applications, the review panel will look at factors such as: the historical or architectural significance of the property, the number of times the building has been previously funded by the program, the number of times the property owner has previously received funds through the program, existing conditions and occupancy status, overall consistency with the purpose of the program, evaluation of relative visual public benefit or impact to the streetscape, the proposed work to the property and the level of investment.