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Laura Hetzel looks over mums at C&T Produce next to Hurkamp Park. JumpStart has invested at the park. MIKE MORONES/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

City's JumpStart program moving toward bigger things

JumpStart efforts continue with small grants, search for bigger project

Click here for more on JumpStart.

BY EMILY BATTLE

Date published: 1/26/2008

BY EMILY BATTLE

Back in June 2006, members of Fredericksburg's Economic Development Authority went out of their way to say their JumpStart plan--a blueprint for redevelopment in the city--would not sit on a shelf and collect dust.

Roughly a year and a half later, JumpStart has become part of the vocabulary around City Hall.

It's been cited as a justification for keeping the courts downtown and building a riverfront park, and it's the basis of design guidelines city planners wrote for the Princess Anne Street corridor.

A series of mini-grants has helped a half-dozen small projects around the city--from an archaeological dig at a downtown construction site to a heated awning for a wine bar--get off the ground.

Now, EDA members are hoping to make some progress on some of JumpStart's loftier goals. Ideally, they'd like to get a developer to take on a project consistent with the goals the report outlines for the Princess Anne corridor.

Princess Anne is one of about a dozen corridors for which JumpStart recommends redevelopment options. The report also suggests how the city might help those projects along with incentives and zoning considerations.

When the EDA unveiled its JumpStart report a year and a half ago, developers who attended the meeting called it the antithesis to suburban sprawl, and praised the fact that it was a rare government document telling developers what they could do, not what they were prohibited from doing.

EDA Vice Chairman Tom Crimmins, who headed the committee that created JumpStart, said he'd like to see more progress toward the goals outlined in the report, but he's been encouraged to see projects that fit its principles take root on their own.

One example he pointed to was the University of Mary Washington's recent purchase of the Park & Shop shopping center.

JumpStart recommends converting the "large, strip mall shopping centers" along Jefferson Davis Highway into "mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly activity centers."

UMW officials announced last month that they plan to convert the center to student housing, retail and office space.

"That's very exciting," Crimmins said.

To try to market other opportunities to developers, Economic Development Director Kevin Gullette recently suggested that the EDA start buying options on properties a developer would need to assemble to build one of the projects outlined in the JumpStart plan.

FACADE IMPROVEMENT GRANTS Business owners in the Princess Anne Street corridor identified in the JumpStart report can apply for grants of up to $5,000 and low-interest loans of up to $10,000 to improve their properties. WHAT QUALIFIES FOR A GRANT? Projects that are on Princess Anne Street between U.S. 1 and Fauquier Street. Projects that bring buildings in line with the design guidelines the City Council approved for this corridor last summer. Business owners who are renting their space must have at least a five-year commitment remaining on their lease. WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE? Visit www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat for links to the design guidelines and the grant application. Call the Economic Development office at 540/372-1216 for more information. Since 2005, the Economic Development Authority has approved grants for the following projects: $10,000 for the Rappahannock-Fredericksburg Rotary Club's wall at Hurkamp Park Up to $9,000 for brick sidewalks at Fredericksburg United Methodist Church's park at the corner of Hanover and Princess Anne streets $10,000 for the archaeological dig performed by Dovetail Cultural Resources at the construction site for a downtown hotel at Caroline and Charlotte streets $10,000 for the Fredericksburg Museum and Cultural Center's expansion at William and Princess Anne streets $5,000 toward the costs of a new heating and cooling system at the historic Silversmith House on Sophia Street, as part of the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts's restoration of that property Up to $24,000 for a heated awning at the wine bar Kybecca is building at William and Charles streets.

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Date published: 1/26/2008