Advocating in the legislature
and on the ground.

In 2023, we want the legislature to support the Downtown & Village Redevelopment Incentives and the Vermont Downtown Program.

Together, the Vermont Downtown Coalition and the 24 downtown organizations continue to spur Covid-19 recovery and overall growth in our State. Through the above advocacy efforts, and the backing of marketing of Vermont’s creative sector, we can protect these incredibly unique community hubs for gerations to come.

Downtown & Village Redevelopment Incentives

Vermont’s successful Downtown and Village Center tax credit program continues to revitalize community centers across the state. These projects enhance the historic character and improve building safety of older and historic commercial and community buildings. The credits support general rehabilitation work, code compliance work, and façade improvements, and may be combined with federal programs. There continues to be a queue of projects ready to be funded. We recommend:

  1. Increase the annual cap limiting the incentives to 5 million dollars.

  2. Expand the successful downtown and village center tax credit program to support improvements to income-producing properties within existing Neighborhood Development Areas (NDA), an ‘add-on’ designation surrounding village centers, downtowns and new town centers.

Vermont Downtown Programs

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:

  1. 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.