The DRI Local Planning Committee held a public workshop on Wednesday, February 16 to meet with community members to discuss the DRI process and ideas for revitalization projects in downtown Norwich. (Photo by Dustin Genter of 5th Dimension Photography)

NORWICH — The Local Planning Committee (LPC) and the Norwich community have not lost momentum with plans for the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant awarded to the City of Norwich in December. On Wednesday, February 16, the LPC held the first public workshop along with architecture and engineering firm Bergmann, who is acting as the lead consultant for the DRI process.

"We have worked on six previous DRIs and are very familiar with the overarching DRI process. Our job really is to facilitate this on your behalf, so we will work very closely with the LPC, we will take guidance from the local planning committee, we will work with various project applicants and sponsors to develop projects, and ultimately to pull together the final deliverable that gets submitted to the state," explained Bergmann Vice President of Northeast Buildings Group Kimberly Baptiste.

Bergmann and the LPC will also be working with New York State Department of State Project Manager Julie Sweet, Homes and Community Renewal, Empire State Development, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the governor's office.

The first step in the DRI process is developing project ideas to add into the strategic investment plan, which details all planned projects to be funded with the DRI grant, that will be submitted to the state later this year for approval.