Financial Incentives

Financial Incentives

Financial incentives are aimed at encouraging the protection and preservation of heritage resources as designated municipal historic resources. Heritage resource owners seeking designation may be eligible for the Matching Conservation Grant

The grant offering has recently been increased from $25,000 to $125,000 for residential properties and $50,000 to $125,000 for nonresidential (as of 2024). Changes to the Heritage Resource Management Policy have been proposed in line with the increase in grant funding. The goal of the policy update is to provide clarity to the public and Council and provide direction to administration with regards to the specifics of administering the grant.

The proposed updates to the policy were presented to the Governance and Finance Committee on April 22, 2024 and can be found here. The additions to the policy are shown in the attached document as blue text and proposed deletions are shown in red. The report that accompanied administration’s recommendations on April 22 can be found here beginning on page 9. Highlights of the proposed updates include details about:

• who decides the successful grant recipients
• how the successful grant recipients are selected
• whether the grant will be divided among many recipients
• whether successful and unsuccessful applicants can apply again in subsequent years
• whether the grant must be for a new project, or it can be applied for retroactively
• whether phased projects are eligible to apply for funding more than once
• who is eligible
• what are the application requirements
• conditions for receiving the grant

A further recommended update, not shown in the proposed policy [link to proposed policy], is to provide direction for property owners that own multiple heritage properties:

• A successful applicant who owns more than one resource and received a grant for one resource, may apply for a grant for another resource in a subsequent year, without a waiting period. These applications will be evaluated per section 6.3.d and treated the same as any other application.

Should you have any feedback about the proposed policy updates, please contact Kathleen Gallagher at Kathleen.Gallagher@banff.ca or 403 762 1102 by the end of day on May 20. The proposed policy updates are anticipated to be before Council for decision in June, 2024.

If you are interested in designating a property, please refer to Current Heritage Applications or contact kathleen.gallagher@banff.ca or 403.762.1102.