LAKE PLACID — Three communities in Jefferson and Lewis counties are looking ahead to the planning process and figuring out how to spend millions in state-grant funding for local improvements. The Village of Lowville in Lewis County will receive $10 million in funding as the North Country winner of the seventh round of the Downtown […]
LAKE PLACID — Three communities in Jefferson and Lewis counties are looking ahead to the planning process and figuring out how to spend millions in state-grant funding for local improvements. The Village of Lowville in Lewis County will receive $10 million in funding as the North Country winner of the seventh round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI).
At the same time, the state announced the Villages of Canton and Alexandria Bay as this year’s North Country region NY Forward winners, receiving $4.5 million each, the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Jan. 23.
Hochul announced the awards during a visit to Lake Placid. Lowville will begin the process of developing a strategic-investment plan to revitalize its downtown with up to $300,000 in planning funds from the $10 million DRI grant. A local planning committee made up of municipal representatives, community leaders, and other stakeholders will lead the effort, supported by a team of private-sector experts and state planners. Canton’s NY Forward application presented a “realistic, visionary and comprehensive” plan to transform blight into new mixed-use development that will offer housing options, retail space and entrepreneurial opportunities, per a release from the governor’s office. Alexandria Bay’s NY Forward application presented “impressive” private-sector project opportunities that will renovate blight, improve public amenities, grow the business sector, and build “much needed and diverse” downtown housing opportunities, Hochul’s office said. In DRI’s seventh round of funding awards, the state will award $10 million to a community in each of New York’s 10 economic-development regions. It amounts to a total state commitment of $100 million in funding and investments to help communities boost their economies by “transforming downtowns into vibrant neighborhoods,” according to the release. As is the case with DRI. the $100 million NY Forward program applies the same “plan-then-act” strategy as the DRI but for New York’s smaller and rural communities. Both involve “strategic planning with immediate project implementation to support a more equitable downtown resurgence.”