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RIC's Rural Downtown Revitalization FAQ

• Smart Towns: A Community Guide To Downtown Revitalization

Downtown Examples

• Brownfields Showcase Communities - EPA
• Dahlonega Historic Commercial District, Georgia
• Downtown Revitalization & Main Street Programs, State Links
• Waterfront Park Development - Marysville, WA
• Main Street Iowa - Downtown Revitalization
• Downtown Revitalization - Pipestone, MN
• The St. Croix Valley Development Design Study Includes Downtown Revitalization and Streetscape Enhancement.
• Revitalizing Community: Four New York State Community Development Organizations

Resource Tools

• Brownfields Resource Tools - EPA
• Community Development Toolbox University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Community and Economic Development Toolbox
• Mainstreet & Downtown Revitalization
• Community Toolbox Kansas University Work Group
• Downtown and Business District Market Analysis
• Downtown Development Key Trends & Practices
• Downtown Revitalization: Some Simple Methods to Inventory and Survey your Local Downtown
• Planning Links Directory, by State PlannersWeb.com
• Rural Development Specialists
• State Economic Development Agencies
• A Tools & Techniques For Community Recovery & Renewal Centre for Community Enterprise .pdf file
• Western By Design Resource Toolkit

Organizations

• American Planning Association (APA)
• Cooperative Extension Service (CES) State Specialists or County Agents
• Downtown Research & Development Center
• International City/County Management Association (ICMA)
• International Downtown Association (IDA)
• National Association of Counties (NACO)
• National Association of Development Organizations (NADO)
• National Association of Regional Councils (NARC)
• National Association of Towns and Townships (NATaT)
• National Center for Small Communities
• National Main Street Center
• National Rural Development Partnership
• Regional Rural Development Centers

The following resources provide a general look at funding sources for economic development efforts. Consult grant writing resources for assistance in preparing successful proposals and in obtaining funding applications and information for obtaining a DUNS number that is required of all organizations/entities applying for a federal grant or cooperative agreement.

Guides to Federal Programs

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
This catalog provides summaries of federal programs including eligibility and contact information. Below are some of the categories from within the catalog. The Catalog is also keyword searchable.

• Business and Commerce
• Community Development
• Regional Development

Federal Programs

Appalachian Regional Commission

• Appalachian Regional Commission Programs These programs are directed at specific counties designated as being in the Appalachian area.

U.S. Department of Agriculture

• Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities Also known as EZ/ECs, these zones are setup to assist rural underserved, high poverty areas in developing needed programs and services.

• Forest Service - Cooperative Forestry
• Economic Action Programs assist rural communities through three programs. The Rural Community Assistance programs help rural communities build skills, networks, and strategies to address social, environmental, and economic changes. The Forest Products Conservation and Recycling program helps communities and businesses find new and expanded business opportunities based on forest resources. The Market Development and Expansion program helps develop new markets for natural resource based goods and services.

• Rural Development
  • Rural Business and Cooperative Service - Rural Business Programs includes grant programs to public bodies, private nonprofit corporations, and Federally-recognized Indian Tribal groups to finance and facilitate development of small and emerging private business enterprises located in areas outside the boundary of a city or unincorporated areas.
  • Rural Housing Service - Community Facilities Loan and Grant Programs ( 10.766 ) provides funding to construct, enlarge, extend, or otherwise improve community facilities providing essential services to rural residents.
  • Rural Utility Service - working with rural cooperatives, nonprofit associations, public bodies, and for-profit utilities to help provide modern utilities such as, Electricity, telecommunications, as well as, water and waste disposal services to rural areas.
  • State Rural Development Offices

U.S. Department of Commerce

• Economic Development Administration Provides assistance to rural communities through a variety of programs including the Public Works and Economic Development Facilities Program.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG Program) offers block grants to Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages to improve their communities.
• State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program provides eligible communities with annual direct grants that they can use for community projects.
• Local Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Offices

U.S. Department of Interior

• Indian Arts and Crafts Board
• Grants, Tax Credit & Other Historic Preservation Assistance National Park Service provides many technical and funding assistance programs to State Historic Preservation Offices and communities for local projects.
• State Historic Preservation Offices
• Tribal Historic Preservation Officers Directory

U.S. Department of Transportation

• TEA-21 This program includes Bicycle transportation, pedestrian walkways and other transportation enhancements.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Brownfields Economic Development Initiative "EPA's Brownfields Initiative will empower States, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields." "With certain legal exclusions and additions, the term `brownfield site' means real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. "

• Brownfields Tax Incentive "The Brownfields Tax Incentive, intended to remove many of the financial disincentives preventing the cleanup and reuse of blighted property."

Additional Funding Resources

• First Nations Development Institute
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
• National Trust's National Main Street Center
• Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC)

• American FactFinder, U.S. Census Bureau
• Census Bureau
• Community Affairs Resource Directory
• Community Development Database: DC, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV
• Community Development Resource Guide, pdf
• Community Indicators: ID, IA, MN, MT, ND, OR, SD, WA
• Directory of Rural Community Developers
• EconData.Net
• Economic Research Service Rural Development Briefing Room
• Healthy Communities Environmental Mapping - HUD E-MAPS
• Regional Economic Information System, BEA
• Rural America At A Glance, ERS
• Rural Counties By State
• Rural By The Numbers, RUPRI
• State Data Centers, By State
• Statistical Abstract of the United States
• United States Counties, NACO

• An Annotated Webliography of Downtown Revitalization Resources
• City Beautiful: Creating A Redevelopment Area In Your Community .pdf
• Downtown/Business District Economic Revitalization University of WI Extension
• Downtown Revitalization: Cities Search for Solutions Article from EconSouth, Third Quarter, 1999 Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
• Downtown Revitalization: From Concept to Reality .pdf
• The Main Street Approach To Downtown Revitalization
• Organizing for Central Business District Revitalization Journal of Extension, April 1999, Vol 37 #2
• Reclamation and Economic Regeneration of Brownfields Reviews of Economic Development Literature and Practice: No.1, 2000 .pdf
• Rehabilitating Historic Storefronts Preservation Briefs 11, NPS
• Welcome Back Downtown: A Guide to Revitalizing Pennsylvania's Small Downtowns Center for Rural Pennsylvania