SEBASTIAN — Two small businesses within Sebastian’s redevelopment area will be able to replace their signs using up to $15,000 of city redevelopment funds.
“We are certainly bent on economic development,” Mayor Richard Gillmor said during Wednesday’s Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, adding, “This is one giant step.”
The city will pay up to $7,500 per business for the signs. The grants are fully funded through taxes collected only within the redevelopment zone, according to City Manager Al Minner.
Jerry Smith Tile and Sebastian Antiques & A Better Consignment and Thrift Shop both received grants from the city’s redevelopment agency for up to 80 percent of the cost for their new signs.
“As long as we’re being approved, we’re fine,” said Sebastian Antiques co-owner Guy Cormier when asked if he or his wife, Sarah, had anything to say to the CRA board, which is served by the Sebastian City Council.
Councilwoman Andrea Coy said she believes the new signs will fit nicely in the community.
As they are, the business signs at Jerry Smith Tile and Sebastian Antiques do not conform to the redevelopment area’s design guidelines, which call for monument signs.
Councilman Eugene Wolff asked how the city would ensure the approved signs would be the ones installed or that the approved funds would be used appropriately.
Growth Management Director Rebecca Grohall said that the businesses would have to submit their plans when they apply for the building permits. If the design does not match what the council approved, the permit would be denied.
The councilman said that, in general, he supports the grant program over all but has “a little bit of hesitation.”
Wolff suggested that in the future the CRA develop guidelines for how long a business has to be open within the CRA before it can qualify for applying for city funds.
He pointed to the Keg Shack, which received redevelopment funds and later shut down.
“It’s nice on the one hand to assist the folks,” Wolff said. But on the other side of the coin, he explained, there’s no guarantee that the business would remain open.
The redevelopment agency is expected to hear requests for three more grants for businesses in the near future.
Southern Sisters Cafe, Tropical Smoothie, and Maxwell Plumbing have applied for funds to replace their signage, improve their facades, or tweak landscaping on their sites. However, their applications needed more work before the Façade, Signage and Landscaping review committee could sign off and send them to the Community Redevelopment Agency.
Donna Keys, a member of that committee, explained that Southern Sisters Café had every intention of being ready for the meeting but they were so busy during the recent Sebastian Riverfront Art and Music Festival, “they are exhausted.”
Maxwell Plumbing’s application for façade improvements is about half completed, Keys said, while Tropical Smoothie has a concept for their improvements and getting the design ready for presentation.
“They’re really getting into this,” Keys said of the upcoming applicants.
