On a 3-2 vote, the Bismarck City Commission adopted the Downtown Rehabilitation Plan, which was developed by the CORE Project and further tweaked and detailed by the Renaissance Zone Authority.

Commissioner Sandi Tabor, who has guided the plan's development since its inception, presented a report and the authority's recommendation for adoption at Tuesday's city commission meeting.

To make Tax Increment Financing available to the various programs in the rehabilitation plan, the commission had to amend the city's Urban Renewal Plan to include the recommendations of the Renaissance Zone Authority. With the commission's adoption of the plan, it will now go to the Bismarck Planning Commission for consideration, and finally return to the commission for a hearing and final action at the end of October.

"A while back, the Core Project provided a list of programs for downtown renewal," Tabor said. "The commission gave tentative agreement but asked the authority to look at them more closely, review and flesh out the details, which it has been doing the past few months."

There are nine recommendations in the plan, which include:

3 Finish the installation of downtown Streetscape Elements.

3 Develop a strategy for implementing a quiet rail zone. Tabor said more public input is needed before moving forward. More information on cost needs to be developed.

3 Sidewalk subsurface infill program. Sidewalk repair has been hampered in the downtown area because of the existence of subsurface vaults that extend under the sidewalks from the buildings. These hollow basements need to be filled or reinforced. Property owners will be responsible for the internal walls of the vaults and any work on the building's structure. The city will use tax increment funds to handle repair of the walks.

3 Establishment of a technical assistance bank. For those people who are planning remodeling and don't know where to turn, this bank would provide assistance. Engineers and architects from the community will be contacted to see if they are interested in participating. They will be put on a list and assigned projects as they come it. Rates will be set at $70 an hour. Tabor said the bank will not provide final plans but will work with preliminary ideas.

3 Revise the current uniform sign code. A code does exist, but it's fairly antiquated, Tabor said.

3 Establish a facade and signage incentive grant. This will encourage improvements of building facades providing a reimbursement grant, though the applicant must be willing to match half the grant. A minimum private investment of $750 is needed with facade grants capped at $2,100 and feasibility studies capped at $4,900. Recommended first-year funding is $200,000 from tax increment finance funds.

3 Establish a maintenance improvement district. Actually, the authority is asking that this not be established until it is reviewed and petitioned for by the Downtown Business Association.

3 Establish a housing incentive grant. Through community input sessions, the CORE committee saw a need for downtown residential housing. A grant of up to $70,000 will be made available to developers.

3 Establish a revolving loan fund. Tabor indicated the authority is working with several banks on the loan fund. A subcommittee comprised of banking representative will be created to work out the details.

Commissioner Steve Schwab questioned the creation of downtown residential housing. He said there is already a parking shortage, and this will certainly increase the problem.

"We've talked about that," Tabor said. "We'll certainly ask that parking be part of any proposed project."

Tabor also said the city is planning to undertake a downtown parking study and the parking authority has a plan for a new ramp.

"I'm sort of curious about that," Commissioner Connie Sprynczynatyk said. "What don't we know about downtown parking. I think we recognize the problems downtown. I don't think we want to get caught up in an extensive study that tells us what we all ready know: that there's a lack of parking."

Commissioner Dave Jensen said his solution for parking always has been to tear down some buildings and require parking with reconstruction. He also was critical of the $70,000 grant money for residential development. He said the Tax Increment Financing fund had grown to $10 million and he expects a citizen-led referral to have the money returned to taxpayers.

Tabor said there was a study that showed where parking ramps should be placed in the future. She hopes this will be revisited and updated with the current downtown demographics. Tabor further added that a study from a few years ago showed there were 52,000 square feet of vacancy downtown and that had grown by another 14,000 square feet.

"We're looking at the vacancy of a lot of buildings that are not easily remodeled,"Tabor said. "It's so expensive that development is not going to be attractive unless there is something on the table. That's what this is all about."

Mayor John Warford said there are a number of spots available in the downtown area for a parking lot without having to tear down buildings. He complimented the CORE committee for taking the time to develop a plan to revitalize the downtown area.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)