The City of Clearwater is seeking applications for its Placemaking and Resident Engagement Grant Program.
Donor Name: City of Clearwater
State: Florida
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: Ongoing
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Details:
The purpose of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Placemaking and Resident Engagement grant program is to provide support and funding to those who are interested in making a positive change through placemaking that assists in transforming Downtown Clearwater into a destination filled with a variety of active, beautiful, and creative public places. Placemaking is the collaborative process that fosters a greater sense of place, ownership, and pride within your community for all to enjoy.
The Placemaking and Resident Engagement grant program directly promotes goals and objectives of the 2018 Clearwater Downtown Redevelopment Plan, specifically:
- Policy 25 (page 50) – The City shall continue to encourage neighborhood associations that empower residents to improve their neighborhood and strengthen ties between residents and government.
- Downtown Gateway District, Policy 7 (page 80) – Encourage community-led public art.
- People Goals (page 46) – Downtown shall be a place that attracts residents, visitors, businesses, and their employees and enable the development of community. The City shall encourage a vibrant and active public realm, recreation and entertainment opportunities and support the community and neighborhoods.
- Objective 1E: Maintain Cleveland Street as Downtown’s Main Street which is valued for its historic character and pedestrian scale.
- Objective 1H: Maintain, activate and program parks, plazas and recreational areas.
- Objective 1J: Recognize and celebrate the unique features of Downtown neighborhoods.
- Accessibility Goal (page 46) – Downtown will have a connected network with mobility choices.
- Objective 2B: Strengthen Cleveland Street, Osceola and Fort Harrison Avenues as local, pedestrianoriented streets. Identify other local streets to be reinvigorated with active ground floor uses.
- Objective 2H: Support temporary techniques that improve the street environment such as murals, temporary planters, sharrows, bike lanes and painted intersections until permanent improvements are made.
- Amenity Goal (page 47) – Downtown will be a memorable place to be enjoyed that is enhanced by Clearwater’s waterfront location, natural resources, built environment and history.
- Objective 3D: Utilize portions of the library for alternative uses that may include a restaurant, special events, group gathering, and expansion of art galleries
- Objective 3F: Promote the visual and performing arts.
- Objective 3G: Create and activate space to work as signature destinations, including civic plazas, markets and retail gathering places that promote economic growth for Downtown.
The Placemaking grant program’s objectives are as follows:
- Infuse downtown with innovative and thriving public spaces.
- Increase and diversify placemaking within downtown by making it easier for new producers and community leaders to enhance the community.
- Incentivize those looking to energize downtown by connecting employees to downtown and connecting residents to downtown, providing opportunities for these groups to take pride in their community.
- Provide additional support for those who wish to engage downtown employees, children and implement art/tech projects.
Type of Project
Each project must fall within one of the following four categories:
- Standard Placemaking: Often known simply as “placemaking” or Traditional Placemaking, is the universal term for the process of creating places where people want to be. Usually, this process consists of small projects and/or activities that engage and empower people while improving the quality of a place for a period of time.
- Creative Placemaking: Brings arts and cultural activities to the forefront with projects limited only by the creative forces that fuel each unique idea. Creative Placemaking animates spaces bringing diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired within each place.
- Tactical Placemaking: Is the process of creating quality places through small projects and short-term activities. These planned projects are often temporary, low-cost, completed in phases, or take place in already established public spaces. These projects work to efficiently generate new uses of spaces and maximize their use for enhanced purposes.
- Resident Outreach: Programs that connect Clearwater residents to downtown to create new advocates for downtown’s public spaces and businesses.
Funding Information
- Grant award amount is determined per applicant.
- Funding will be awarded to projects under the following scale:
- Small – total project cost up to $2,999
- Medium – total project cost $3,000 – $9,999
- Large – total project cost $10,000 – $25,000
- Projects with a target audience of downtown employees, children and/or incorporate art/tech will be eligible for funding up to 100% of project costs
- Projects led by Clearwater neighborhood associations will be eligible for funding up to 100% of project costs
Eligibility Criteria
- Grants may be awarded to property owners, tenants, organizations, or individuals for placemaking and resident outreach programs within the CRA district.
- CRA staff will administer the Placemaking and Resident Engagement grant program. Funding for this grant program is based on budget availability and will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Application submission does not guarantee approval. Applications will be reviewed for completeness and compliance with program criteria to determine eligibility for grant funding. Applications that do not comply with the program criteria and conditions will not be eligible for funding. No grants will be awarded for work completed prior to an executed grant agreement. The funding decision of CRA staff is final.
- No more than one active grant application may be awarded to the same applicant at a time. An applicant must successfully complete one project prior to applying for another grant. Grant funding from multiple city programs cannot be applied to the same program.
For more information, visit City of Clearwater.
