Work Session on Building Improvement Grant Program Changes – March 9, 2026
Work Session on Building Improvement Grant Program Changes
The Forest Grove Urban Renewal Agency (URA) Board held a work session on March 9, 2026, to discuss proposed changes to the Building Improvement Grant program. Staff presented a revised framework linking program objectives to the URA plan and Vision 2040, a weighted scoring rubric, a minimum scoring threshold, and updated eligibility requirements. Council provided direction on several items, including adopting seven program objectives, setting a minimum score of 60 points, and establishing new eligibility criteria.
Discussion Items
- Program Objectives and Scoring Rubric: Staff presented seven proposed program objectives tied to the URA plan and Vision 2040: encouraging housing/mixed-use development, retaining/expanding businesses, increasing taxable assessed value, stimulating private investment, eliminating blight, encouraging public amenities, and preserving historic resources. Council discussed each objective and its metrics. Councilor Falconer suggested adding “reduces vacancy” or “increases activation” to the blight elimination objective, which received consensus. Councilor Gustafson raised the possibility of including affordable housing requirements (e.g., 10% low-income units), but after discussion, council agreed not to include such a requirement at this time, citing the need for a broader conversation and potential negative impacts based on other cities' experiences. A weighted scoring rubric was presented with 100 total points: 25 for housing/mixed-use, 20 for business retention/expansion, 15 each for increasing assessed value, stimulating private investment, and eliminating blight, and 5 each for public amenities and historic preservation. Council expressed general approval and requested clearer metrics for each category.
- Minimum Scoring Threshold: Staff recommended setting a minimum score of 50 points for a project to be considered. Council debated between 50, 60, and 70 points. Councilor Gustafson noted that adjusting downward might be easier than upward, while Councilor Marshall favored 60 as a middle ground. Council ultimately reached consensus on a minimum threshold of 60 points.
- Eligibility Requirements: Staff reviewed existing eligibility requirements and proposed four additions: (1) a minimum project cost threshold (staff suggested $20,000 as an example); (2) restricting funding from portable assets; (3) requiring funds be used for building improvements; and (4) demonstrating financial feasibility through a letter of credit or other confirmation. Council discussed the minimum cost threshold: Councilor Gustafson advocated for $10,000 total project cost based on feedback from downtown businesses, but other councilors noted that smaller projects often involve portable assets and that a $20,000 threshold would align with the 60-point minimum. Council agreed on $20,000. For financial feasibility, Councilor Schummel and Councilor Gustafson raised concerns about applicants stacking grants from different cycles, and staff committed to addressing this in the final application. Council approved the other three additions.
Key Outcomes
- Council directed staff to: (1) change the “eliminate blight and blighting influences” objective to a more positive statement and add “reduces vacancy/increases activation” as a metric; (2) proceed with the seven program objectives as presented; (3) adopt a weighted scoring rubric with 100 total points (specific weights as noted above); (4) set a minimum scoring threshold of 60 points; (5) establish a minimum total project cost of $20,000; (6) restrict funding from portable assets; (7) require funds be used for building improvements; and (8) include a financial feasibility requirement with flexibility for applicants stacking grants. Staff will bring a formal resolution to the URA board based on this direction. The grant application will open July 1, 2026, and close December 31, 2026, with EDC review in January 2027 and URA board consideration in February 2027.
Meeting Transcript
Action for tonight's work session is about our big grants and building improvement grants. And I'm gonna turn it over to our assistant city man. Nope, I'm gonna turn it over to our economic development coordinator, Miles Glowacke. You're welcome. No. Oh no. Can you guys hear them? Maybe just have to hold it. Okay, yeah. Okay, next. Yes. Um the agenda for tonight is we'll go over the purpose, the background, uh program objectives and scoring rubric, talk about a minimum minimum scoring threshold, program eligibility requirements, and then take questions and comments. The purpose of the work session tonight is to discuss changes to the building improvement grant program. Um we heard feedback at the last um urban renewal session, and so we're bringing changes before the board. What we heard was to create a clear connection between the big scoring criteria, the 2040 vision plan, and the URA plan. Consider using a scoring rubric to incentivize projects that create housing in the town center increase increased assessed value and create a scoring methodology similar to the RFU process that assigns higher weight objectives of importance. And then EDC also had a comment that they'd like to see some kind of financial viability for the project on the applicant's part. The statement of purpose in the urban renewal plan is to further eliminate blight and bleding influences, improve the utilization of land within the area, encourage private investment and job creation, and increase the taxable value of the of the property. These are the objectives of the URA plan related to the building improvement grant. Um read them up there. Um create a program to reduce development costs, assist business retention expansion efforts, and encourage a mixture of land use, um, including retail office and housing along the corridor. Oh I have to take any test test. Okay. And next slide, please. I'll turn it over to Kim for this portion. Thank you, Miles. Mayor members of council. Uh so tonight we're going to talk a little bit about an overarching framework for how the objectives can then tie to the URA plan and then the 2040. And then we'll be going through each objective and how it can be measured in some detail. So at this stage, thinking about that overarching picture, and then we'll go into detail um later on. Um, and so what we had done what we worked through and Miles and Jesse and I is linking all of the statements that Miles just went through. So all of the statement of purpose and all those objectives that are related to the building improvement grant and creating program objectives that link up to those. And so that's what you'll see on the right hand side is if it's a statement of purpose or a specific objective and how that ties into a possible proposed program objective on the left-hand side. And so we have seven program objectives. Next slide, please. Next up, we went into the vision 2040 plan and identified all of the 2040 actions that are related to the building improvement grant program. There were six. Next slide, please. Oh, thank you. Sorry. So and then we went, oh no, previous slide. Oh, there. So then we went and did the same exercise. So attaching each of the vision 2040 actions with the proposed objectives. You can see that some actions tied to multiple objectives and some objectives didn't have an action that directly ties to it. Next slide, please. And then we combined all of these together into one total slide. Wait one second for it to get pulled back up. So on the left hand side, you'll see again that we have the objectives. The middle is the URA statement.
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