Common Council authorizes grant application to transform 15th Ward

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The City of Syracuse Common Council voted Monday afternoon to authorize the city’s application for a grant of up to $50 million to execute a transformation plan for the East Adams Street neighborhood.

The Syracuse Housing Authority will act as the lead applicant for the grant, according to the council’s meeting agenda. The project to transform the neighborhood started in 2015, according to SHA’s website. On Sept. 18, the council passed a resolution to affirm support for the project, co-signed by Mayor Ben Walsh and Common Councillor Patrick Hogan of the Second District.

The grant is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhood Implementation program, which supports communities that are ready to implement plans to redevelop a neighborhood, according to the U.S. Department of Urban Housing.

The Syracuse Housing Authority’s website says its primary goals of the redevelopment are to improve housing, quality of life and neighborhood safety and investment, such as better education and more commercial activity. The 118-square-acre neighborhood includes Almus Olver Towers, Central Village, McKinney Manor and Pioneer Homes, which in total hold 1,037 public housing units.

A potential 65% of the $50 million grant, totalling $32.5 million, may be allocated toward redeveloping each of the 1,037 public housing units, while the rest would be focused on the quality of life and neighborhood investment aspects of the project, according to the council’s meeting agenda.

The council held one item for a later vote, which would have created an agreement with Almus Housing Development Fund Corporation to rehabilitate 191 units of Almus Olver Towers.

Other business:

• The council approved the sale of $500,000 worth of city bonds to fund electrical upgrades at the Inner Harbor, a project that aims to use the southern part of Onondaga Lake to be a mixed-use residential area with over 400 units in apartments, townhouses and condominiums. It is also planning to be a commercial space, which currently includes the Aloft Syracuse Inner Harbor hotel and will include the county’s controversial planned aquarium.
• The council also approved the sale of a number of bonds to finance various public infrastructure projects, specifically parks and sidewalks. The council authorized $230,000 for the 2023-2024 Parks Facility Improvements Project, which will improve facilities and infrastructure, according to the council’s meeting agenda. The council gave $150,000 of sold city bonds to the Parks Playground Replacement Program, which designs, installs and replaces playgrounds throughout Syracuse. The council approved the sale of $100,000 and $180,000 worth of city bonds to the Parks Sidewalks Capital Improvements Projects, which replaces and constructs sidewalks within Syracuse parks, and the Thornden Park Water Service Line Replacement Project, respectively.