The Good News About Governor Markell’s Downtown Development District Initiative

Today, Governor Markell has visited Wilmington, Dover and Bridgeville to announce the Downtown Development Initiative. You’ll remember that he discussed this in the State of the State Address and it is one of the multiple revitalization initiatives proposed by the Governor this year. The goal of this plan is to have 3 municipalities (to start, one in each county) propose and apply for a Downtown Development District, where development projects in line with the plan would be eligible for up to a 20% grant-in-aid rebate on investment. Investments could be for a single home — or for larger, transformative projects. The pool of funds available for this is proposed at $7M, shared by those doing the development. If the pool is oversubscribed, then developers would get a smaller share, but all developers would get some rebate. In addition, the Governor proposes to reserve $1.5M in the state’s Historic Tax Credits for use in the Downtown Development Districts, adding some additional incentive to help re-create the State’s Downtowns.

Most of our regular readers know that I am a fan of cities and city living, and that I live in Wilmington. Full disclosure too–I live in an area that is going to try to be a part of Wilmington’s first Development District. So I see this as really hopeful. So do quite a few of my neighbors — both residents and businesses. The Wilmington announcement was standing-room only — with many members of the business community, the non-profit community, the development community, some of the Governor’s Cabinet, state legislators, Mayor Williams, some of his cabinet and city councilpeople. There was a good deal of excitement in the room and a good energy around an opportunity to build on some of downtown Wilmington’s successes and extend them westward. The trend to urban living is real all over the US and it is well past time that Delaware took advantage of the assets that its cities really could be.

Especially Wilmington. It is a real crime that the state’s biggest city (and corporate home) isn’t a more stable place. When I talked to the Governor after the event, we discussed how this effort could be certainly help cities like Wilmington to begin to address its financial sustainability problem. Wilmington can’t take some of the steps other municipalities can to manage its finances, but an effort like this lets Wilmington start changing the value of what is already in the city. The Governor noted that this also helps to create some needed jobs in the city and as more people move into the city, can provide opportunities for businesses to help serve new residents. His goal here “is to make the best use of the taxpayer dollar, by leveraging as much private investment as possible for those dollars.” This plan also requires that the municipalities put some skin in the game – whether it is in the form of regulatory relief or regulatory streamlining, or matching dollars or whatever creative ideas could be implemented to help implement that plan. In addition, the DDD initiative brings other State Agencies to the table to try to make sure that those agencies are bringing their resources to bear to make a project successful, where possible. For instance, DelDOT might look to re-prioritize a planned road project or TE project in a plan area if it helps to further the plan goals. That would support the groups looking to enhance walkability or bikeability of their areas — both items that are good urban amenities. The Governor also noted that this could be the kind of investment that might provide a reason for neighbors to invest in their own buildings — he told me about a walk through the Cornerstone West development where he spoke to two people whose homes were not a part of that development, but because of that development felt that there was more reason to take better care of their homes — Cornerstone West had helped to stabilize property values and a community.

There’s been a long and detailed effort to create a vision to build a Creative District in Wilmington, that I hope is the City’s locus of effort for the application for the DDD designation. The Governor noted that as the State evaluates applications, they are going to prioritize those applications that “clearly demonstrate a need, submit a quality plan, and provide appropriate incentives” to help move the plan forward. He also noted that having your stakeholders already lined up and ready to go would be a plus up for that application. Plenty of cities have done the work to develop Creative Districts and plenty of them are very successful. If you have ever been to the Arts District in Lancaster, PA, you see what can be done. And the great thing about targeting the Creative District as the DDD is that it won’t be hard to demonstrate need, there is a really great plan on paper and the stakeholders are the Steering Committee for this effort — completely ready to be a part of making this a success.

The thing that’s needed now is for the City to focus and help make this happen cleanly. There are people at the City who are looking to broaden this effort to a much bigger (and really worthy) vision for the space west of downtown (and east of 95). Doing that will go against one of the rules of this kind of development — building from strength. And the current strength is a ready-made plan and committed stakeholders who are in the process of looking for funding now. Trying to add on areas that don’t have that kind of support fails to learn the lesson of the past 30 or 40 years of this area. We’re also talking about shoehorning a different set of needs and a different development approach for broader areas here. Trying to be all things to everyone isn’t the way to get to a vision. And the Governor has created a framework that looks to specifically help those who look like they can help themselves — both the municipality AND the supporting stakeholders. Change happens in small pieces and I’m encouraging the City to please focus on the small piece that is ready to go — and use your longer term efforts to get the larger pieces setup for change.