Jill Schramm/MDN Chris Plank, Minot’s National Disaster Resilience grant manager, speaks to the Minot City Council Tuesday during discussion on Minot’s designation as a Metropolitan City. At left is council member Stephan Podrygula.

Minot’s sought-after status as a Metropolitan City has been achieved, according to information from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Minot City Council voted Tuesday to accept the designation, which will entitle the city to direct annual appropriations of any congressionally appropriated federal grants through the Community Development Block Grant program, rather than competing for a share of an allocation provided to the state for distribution. Having met the 50,000-population threshold, Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks have been entitlement cities for some time. Minot will begin receiving a CDBG allocation in 2024.

“This is an item we have been working many years on,” City Manager Harold Stewart said. “This funding has to be used for some sort of program that meets the national objectives of the CDBG program. Providing this funding to help develop low- to moderate-income housing is one program that the council and the community could consider to do this, but there are other alternatives that the council and the community could consider as well.”

Stewart cited examples from his previous experience in Arizona, where CDBG money was used to run a youth center and to make home improvements to resolve code and safety issues in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods.

“There’s a plethora of types of programs that the community of Minot can consider on how to invest this funding to the best use and return on investment for the community,” he said. “We still have a lot of process to go through as a community to determine how we are going to use this money on the best benefit for the community.”

Chris Plank, Minot’s National Disaster Resilience grant manager, said a citizen participation program will be conducted that will enable residents to offer suggestions for using grant money.

“We do encourage all of the residents to voice their opinions and, depending on the regulations, there will be a period where they can comment,” he said.

Council member Scott Burlingame said having funds come directly to Minot will be positive.

“I think the people of MInot are much better at finding solutions that will work here in Minot,” he said. “This money is already going to be allocated and if we don’t accept this money, it’s not going to go back to the taxpayers’ pockets. It’s going to go somewhere else, where the federal government will continue to tell us how to fix these problems, not allowing us to do it here. So I look forward to being part of this opportunity to work through this to figure out what is the right solution for Minot.”

In accepting CDBG funds, Minot also must have a Consolidated Plan that includes a housing and homeless needs assessment, housing market analysis, strategic plan and action plan. It must be submitted to HUD before Aug. 16, 2024.

Council member Carrie Evans noted the city already has commissioned a housing study.

“So, I like the rhythm of this and that all these things are going to come together,” she said. “We’ll have a lot of sources of data and information to make the best decisions we can.”