FAIRBORN — Fairborn City Council approved a block grant action plan July 1 to allow city officials to submit a grant application that, if awarded, will result in a new program intended to improve the look of downtown businesses.

“[The plan is] to create a Downtown Business Facade Improvement Program, where business [owners] can access up to $35,000 to do different facade improvements,” Fairborn Development Services Assistant Director Missy Frost said. “It would only be the exterior of the property that they would be able to tap into these funds for.”

The program is set so that business owners would fund 10 percent of the total costs of facade improvements and would finance another 10 percent with a 2 percent interest rate. A mortage would be placed on the property to secure the remaining 80 percent of the balance which would decline over a five-year period. The funds would specifically be available to business owners located in the downtown area.

“It is very similar to how we do the current rehabilitations on the residential side,” Frost said. “We kind of modeled it after that so there would still be some assurances that we would receive our funds back.”

Council Member Rob Hoffman asked during the meeting July 1 how the $35,000 figure came up. Frost said if funds go over $35,000, there are more required guidelines and steps to be taken.

Each member of council voted in favor of approving the block grant action plan.