Established by state statute in 1998, the creation of Designated Downtowns provided communities with financial incentives, helped restore historic buildings, improved housing, designed walkable communities, and encouraged economic development by incentivizing public and private investments.
Our downtown organizations are under-resourced, particularly considering the responsibilities they have been tasked with due to the COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts. We need to provide additional resources at this critical time for Vermont’s downtowns. We recommend:
Provide funding of $800,000: $25,000 for each of the 24 downtown organizations and the State Downtown Program. Funding would support:
Local marketing, content development and increased digital reach for downtown organizations, individually and collectively.
Education and ability to guide and partner with businesses, non-profit, and community organizations to strengthen downtown models, and leverage state funding to incentivize broader participation.
Communication within the coordinated effort of these state mandated organizations to leverage successes.