Coleman council declares city a blighted area, plans downtown revitalization project

COLEMAN, Texas — On March 22, the Coleman City Council voted to approve declaring the city a “blighted area” and working towards a downtown revitalization project.

City Manager, Diana Lopez, said the city plans to submit a grant application to the Texas Department of Agriculture for their downtown revitalization program. This is a program that the city has used in past years.

“For 2025, TDA is placing on the table $1,000,000," Lopez said. "This is $1,000,000 in grant money if you are awarded, and they are including the ability for cities to not just do sidewalks, not just do drainage improvements or curbs and gutters. This is the first time that this particular program will allow for street improvements.”

Lopez said the city has proposed a designated area for this project. The area encompasses primarily all of the Coleman downtown area.

She said that part of this grant, if approved, would be used for street improvement within the designated area.

"Street improvements have a broad definition, but you could do everything from a seal coat, or a rehab of a street or stretch of road, curbs and gutters would be included with that as well," Lopez said.

The next Coleman City Council meeting will be on April 3 at 5:15 p.m. in the council chambers.