FELLSMERE — The City of Fellsmere has unanimously approved a five-year partnership to preserve historic homes with the Fellsmere Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.
City Manager Jason Nunemaker presented the agreement to Fellsmere City Council last week, explaining that the idea came out of the council’s discussion on a proposed Family Dollar store that wanted to move in and displace a historic home in dire need of repair and rehabilitation.
For its part, Habitat for Humanity has been dedicated to building affordable homes in neighborhood developments.
Due to the state of the economy, however, the organization has begun to shift gears and take on individual, undeveloped properties and fixing up existing, run-down homes.
To get the ball rolling, the City of Fellsmere has matched a $5,000 donation from the Bernard Egan Foundation, earmarking a total of $10,000 for rehabilitation.
“It’s an expensive process,” Nunemaker said of reclaiming the historic character of the potential target homes. “This is a way to address it.”
City Council members have said they want the owners of historic homes to maintain the properties’ historic character and consider fixing up them up rather than demolish and build new, while recognizing that renovation costs can get expensive.
Nunemaker, with Habitat for Humanity, will start to tell homeowners about the availability of the Fellsmere Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.
In the future, Nunemaker expects the city’s Community Redevelopment Area money to contribute to the program, providing grants to property owners similar to existing Façade, Signage and Landscaping grants available to commercial properties.
Currently, no money is available for the new initiative, but Nunemaker expects a turn-around as more businesses come into the city and property values increase.
Nunemaker said Habitat already has guidelines in place for homeowners but those guidelines will need to be adjusted to match what the city has in mind for the historic properties.
“We need to do a little more fine-tuning,” Councilwoman Sara Savage said.
The five-year agreement between the city and Habitat can be extended in five-year increments. Under the terms, Habitat will administer and implement the Fellsmere Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative and will be in charge of dispersing money from the city for rehabilitation.
Habitat must also strive to secure other sources of money, along with making sure all necessary home repair permits be obtained and maintained.
In exchange for Habitat’s involvement, the city agreed to provide what money it can through the initiative, and will also seek out its own additional money sources – which could include future grants.