NORTHBOROUGH – A sign and façade program may be on the horizon.
The program was recently discussed during the Planning Board’s Aug. 1 meeting.
Planning Board member Amy Poretsky noted that the Master Plan Implementation Committee recently held its third and final community meeting. Many of the final ideas could be expensive and may take years to develop, she said.
“But something like a sign and façade program could be low hanging fruit where you can start to make the downtown look a little nicer by working with some of the downtown businesses,” she said.
Sign, façade program
According to Planning Director Laurie Connors, the sign and façade program would be funded through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. She suggested that $250,000 in ARPA funds could be requested for two programs: a sign program and a façade program.
Awards for the sign program would be a reimbursement grant and cap out at $2,000. There would be a 50% match. The applicant would submit a design for their sign for review. A committee would decide whether to grant the award, according to Connors.
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Awards under the façade program would be capped at $20,000. Connors said this program would also require a 50% match from the applicant.
There are several activities that would be covered under the façade program, she said, including permanent landscaping, awnings, siding repairs and replacement, new windows, new doors, walkway improvements and ramps for accessibility.
“The point of the façade program is that the improvements would have to be made to the street-facing façade,” Connors said.
For example, all of an applicant’s windows could not be replaced, but the front-facing windows could be, she explained.
“The point is to get a dramatic impact at the street,” Connors said.
Code violations would be the priority, such as accessibility, doors and lighting, she said.
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However, Poretsky and member Bill Pierce suggested that addressing code violations should be under a separate program.
“We can put in ARPA funds to get that done, but it’s a separate program than beautifying downtown. That’s fixing up downtown,” said Pierce.
After discussion, Connors said she would take it under advisement.
Because ARPA funds have to be fully committed by the town by Dec. 31, 2024, Connors said these would be short-term programs unless the town was able to find alternative funding. The ARPA funds have to be fully spent by the end of 2026.
“I think that [the program] really has some great potential,” said Connors. “Downtown commercial properties and businesses would be prioritized, but under the current program description any commercial property would be eligible to apply except for chain stores.”
The exception is because chain stores typically have specific requirements from headquarters in regards to their building, she said.
The Planning Board members discussed focusing the program on downtown properties.
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In regards to downtown chain stores, Pierce suggested opening it to them so that the chains could look like other downtown properties.
Connors said there aren’t a lot of commercial properties in downtown Northborough. She said there were commercial properties “looking rough” on Main Street which may not be considered as part of downtown and why she wanted to open the program to a broader area in Northborough.
“One of my concerns is that if we limit it to the downtown, then we may not have the interest and then the program falls apart,” Connors said.
She suggested that a portion of the funds could be earmarked for downtown properties. However, if the Select Board reduced the ARPA allocation, Connors said she “would absolutely think that we should just focus on downtown.”
Connors has submitted a draft of the program description to the Select Board and plans on presenting to the board in early September.
