Community Improvement Plans and Financial Incentives 5-Year Review

What is a Community Improvement Plan?

A Community Improvement Plan (CIP) is a tool that allows municipalities to give funds and add policy to a specific area within the city. The CIPs are developed by the City after a need is identified in a community. A CIP uses techniques, such as providing Financial Incentives or implementing zone changes, to address the unique concerns a community may have.

Some of the CIPs are specific to a neighbourhood (e.g. Argyle), while others are city-wide (e.g. Affordable Housing). Here's a link to all of our Community Improvement Plans.

A consolidated list of our CIPs and the Financial Incentives they include is listed in the "May 9, 2022 PEC Report". Summarized details of each Financial Incentive can be found in the "Current Loans and Grants" document.

5-Year Program Review

An important part of having a CIP is to periodically review how well they are doing at meeting the Community's needs. Specifically, this project will review how well the Financial Incentives programs are doing in achieving the goals of re-investment, rehabilitation, and beautification.

The previous 5-year review took place between 2016-2017. Some of the changes to Financial Incentives that resulted from the previous 5-year review are listed below:

• Increased the maximum Façade Improvement Loan from $20,000 to $50,000
• Increased the maximum Upgrade to Building Code Loan from $50,000 to $200,000
• Introduced targeted and non-targeted uses for Industrial Lands Development Charges grants.

Please watch the video from out September 22, 2022 public meeting, then share your thoughts below.

Get Involved!

Many local businesses benefit from loan and grant programs to help revitalize their properties.

Read the Background Analysis and 5-Year Review Reports going to the Planning and Environment Committee on May 23, 2023 and give us your feedback.