City of Cortland Certified as Pro-Housing Community Within State – City Now Eligible For Millions in Grants

The City of Cortland has now been certified by the New York State Office of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) as a Pro-Housing Community. The certification now opens up the City of Cortland to apply for up to $650 million dollars in grants. The grants are only available for municipalities that are certified as a Pro-Housing Community.

Early this year, the Common Council voted unanimously on a resolution to express their intent on becoming a Pro-Housing Community. For the City of Cortland to achieve the certification, the city will begin to streamline the process for renovating and adding new multi-family buildings, affordable housing, accessory dwelling units, and supportive housing within the community.

“As part of this designation the City will look to incorporate regional housing needs into our local planning decisions with a goal of increasing the development of housing units.”

Cortland Mayor Scott Steve said in a release.

Some grant funding that is now only available to Pro-Housing Communities include RestoreNY and the Pro-Housing Communities capital grant program. So far this year, the state has made available $40 million for Pro-Housing Communities and are also looking to undertake infrastructure, blight removal, and redevelopment projects or projects that’ll create accessible job centers and livable communities.

The City of Cortland has also sent a letter of intent on applying for funding through RestoreNY. The city now plans to begin a review and update on the comprehensive plan with a focus on updating land use regulations that’ll encourage developers to add more housing.

So far, the City of Cortland is the only municipality within Cortland County to achieve a Pro-Housing designation from the state and only 1 of 13 in the Central New Economic Development Region that covers Cortland, Cayuga, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego Counties.