Historid Dis Improve Prog LtrPlam'dng Services Department
City Hall
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-4864
(563) 5894210 office
(563) 589-4221 fax
(563) 6906678 TDD
planning~cityofd ubu qu e.org
The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
City of Dubuque
City Hall-50 W. 13th Street
Dubuque, IA 52001
RE: Historic District Public Improvement Program
Dear Mayor and City Council Members:
July 28, 2003
The Historic Preservation Commission is requesting that the City Council reconsider
approving and funding the Historic District Public Improvement Program Applications.
These projects were denied at your July 21, 2003 meeting so that the Historic District
Public Improvement Program funds could be used to help offset the City's budget
shortfall.
While the Commission reluctantly accepts that future funding of this program may not
be possible, the commissioners felt that the funding already allocated for the past two
years should be expended as originally intended. As the projects in question were
submitted to and forwarded by the commission prior to the end of the fiscal year, the
Commission feels that the City should follow through on its commitment to these
neighborhood projects. The Historic District Public Improvement Program has been a
multi-year commitment by the Commission and by Neighborhood Associations,
beginning with the development of the Historic District Streetscape Guidelines approved
by the City Council last spring. Over the last one to two years, the Neighborhood
Associations have put considerable time and effort into their applications and have
already raised their matching funds. In addition, several of the Neighborhood
Associations received Neighborhood Grants earlier in the year from the City of
Dubuque's Community Development Block Grant Program to help match the Historic
District Public Improvement Program funds.
The $139,450 budgeted for the Historic District Public Improvement Program is a
carryover of funds from Fiscal Year 2003. The Commission is concerned that the
HDPIP applications area victim of timing during this budget crisis. If the HDPIP
applications had been submitted earlier in Fiscal Year 2003, then they would have been
funded. We would ask that the City Council look to other projects or programs in the
current Fiscal Year 2004 budget to balance the budget.
The Historic Preservation commission respectfully requests that the HDPIP applications
be approved as recommended by the Commission, and that the $139,450 in Fiscal Year
2003 funding be restored to the Historic District Public Improvement Program.
Service People Int%mSty Responsibility Innovation Teamwork
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Wand, Chairperson
Historic Preservation Commission
CC:
Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
Laura Carstens, Planning Services Manager
Jerelyn O'Connor, Neighborhood Development Specialist