The Williamsburg Economic Development Authority is asking the City of Williamsburg to include $200,000 in discretionary funds for the EDA in the fiscal year 2015 budget.
Before Del. Monty Mason (D-93rd District) left his position as EDA chairman, he passed a letter to Mayor Haulman asking for the money. In the letter, Mason said the funds would be used for economic development incentives, the main charge of the EDA.
Right now, the authority offers development incentives through three grant programs: an e-commerce grant, a demolition program and a non-conforming sign grant.
The demolition grant provides cash to property owners to demolish an existing building on their property for redevelopment. The EDA will provide up to $20,000 for the demolition as a 10-year interest free loan that is paid back through taxes the property owner pays on the new building. If the taxes don’t pay off the loan in 10 years, they pay a lump sum at the end of the loan period for the rest of the owed money.
The e-commerce grant offers businesses half the cost of developing a website with a cap of $1,500 provided by the EDA. Michele Dewitt, Williamsburg’s economic development director, said in an email it had not been discussed whether the $200,000 would replace the grant programs, but her sense was it would.
The sign grant offers money to businesses that have signs that don’t conform to city standards to bring their signs up to code. It matches half of the cost of bringing a non-conforming sign into conformity with a cap of $2,000.
All EDAs in Virginia also get funding by charging a fee to businesses after serving as a conduit for bond requests. The Williamsburg EDA helps process bond requests for nonprofits and charges a fee based on the amount of the bond. For bond amounts up to $5 million, that fee is half of 1 percent of the bond amount and one-tenth of 1 percent for amounts more than $5 million with a cap on the bonds their allowed to serve of $35 million per year.
Mason’s letter to Haulman said the reason the EDA needs a discretionary fund is because the needs for each new business in the city vary.
“After further discussion … we believe the best approach is one that allows for flexibility in the construction of an appropriate incentive package tailored to the specific needs of the prospect,” Mason’s letter said.
Both the York County and James City County EDAs have their own budget that includes a regular revenue stream. In addition to gaining revenue through acting as a bond conduit, the York EDA also gets money from owning and selling land. The York authority also receives about $33,000 each year from the board of supervisors.
Williamsburg City Council Members said Saturday, during their retreat, they would enter into more talks with the city’s economic development office about the fund.
