One couple who owns a downtown business thinks of their second floor apartment as a New York City-ish loft.

Located in the heart of the city, Kim and Jay Pearson's home is within walking distance of a theater, a variety of restaurants and bars, a grocery store and their shop.

City planners would love the Pearsons to have more neighbors. They have long identified the importance of creating a residential community in downtown as part of a revitalization effort.

“Bringing people (downtown) is the most important element,” said Michael Long, director of capital projects and grants.

Auburn City Council agreed to hire a consultant to see what regulations the city can change to encourage the vital movement of people into downtown 24 hours a day.

The first step to make this happen is reforming codes to make purchasing and renovating an older building more appealing to developers and buyers.

“The downtowns are the lifeline of a region. It's where people work and entertain themselves and it's essential to continue to make downtowns even more vibrant,” said Daniel Young, New York State Urban Council program manager.

The Urban Council is a statewide non-profit organization that encourages revitalization of downtowns and central business districts across the state.

The masses moving out of the downtown was a national phenomenon in the beginning of the 1900s, Long said. This left Auburn with property owners underutilizing their abundance of second- and third-stories rooms traditionally used to house family and the owners.

A housing study, adopted by council in January, stated city leaders should encourage growth for residential use in the downtown area.

“Several interviews indicated that the second and third floors of retail space in downtown would provide an excellent location for new housing. However, several interviewees indicated that building codes were a financial constraint,” according to the study.

Experts agree one of the faster ways to encourage growth and revitalization is to bring people into the heart of the city.

Young pointed to a new trend that shows younger people, mostly young professionals, gravitating to becoming downtown dwellers. But according to the study, there aren't enough affordable spaces to meet this demand in Auburn.

In real estate listings from the Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District, only six out of 50 mentioned properties had the possibility of residential space.

More than 3,000 people work downtown in the 290 businesses there, according to the Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District.

Developers, private or non-profit organization, play a major role in rebuilding the area, Long said.

But what usually happens first? Does a city improve the area to lure builders to come in, or do developers find inexpensive treasures and cause a ripple effect that improves the city?

“It's the chicken and the egg situation,” Long said.

At the same time, Young says both phenomena usually overlap. Young, based in Syracuse, knows all too well the need for downtown residential spaces is there.

He sees a creative environment that raises interest for spaces in central downtown building districts. Therefore, encouraging an artistic and cultural center with shops, theaters and museums, can help draw people to an area.

Part of the process is converting buildings into inviting spaces for retail and residential purposes, Young said, but this takes public or municipal authorities cooperating with private developers and corporations. On the other hand, government agencies set the policies and offer tax incentives.

“More people make for a better community. You have to have an incentive for people to invest in their buildings. It's not necessarily asking for money,” Jay Pearson said.

However, developers have the tools to assist them in implementing concepts and designs, Young said.

One such tool is a market tax credit. This allows lower cost debt financing and tax credits.

A new state tax credit will take up the historic tax credit to a certain percent of the project's expenses up to a set amount. This encourages owner-occupied living spaces as well as commercial structures.

“It's tough to invest in a building in hopes of getting something out of it. No one gets rich, you hope you make enough to get your invest back,” Kim Pearson said.

The Urban Council is trying to increase the credits opportunity and get rid of the cap to help owners like the Pearsons, Young said. The state and federal government also offer tax incentives, credits and low-interest financing.

Lattimore Hall, a dormitory for students on Genesee Street, is an example of a non-profit developer taking advantage of programs to build residential units. It can house up to 97 students and a residence assistant among the 20 apartments in its brick facade.

But overall, people living downtown permanently, not only strolling through and working there, is key to a healthy central business district, Long said.

Along with an enlarged, 24-hour community in downtown would come an increase in services. Many central district businesses shut down after workers go home during the week and on weekends.

“There's no place to get a cup of coffee on Saturday,” Kim Pearson said.

Another benefit of growing a neighborhood with people who stay past the usually 9 to 5 shift means there's the improved safety of having someone almost always nearby, Long said. The thought is to keep people in downtown and make it more of a community. This can chase away crime and shady under dealings.

The city already made huge progress in sweeping out brash drug deals and unsafe conditions when it eradicated a pedestrian walkway and recreated State Street, Kim Pearson said.

While the streetscape design created a better traffic flow to the streets' stores, it also allowed better policing methods and maintenance. Now, people can walk around, she added.

Perhaps one way to invite people is to find structures suitable for conversion to living spaces and make them economically appealing for people to buy and refurbish them.

“I think we need to identify historic buildings, and working to convert those buildings into adaptive reused spaces is essential,” Young said. Another factor to the equation would be saving older buildings from demolition or becoming eyesores, Jay Pearson added.

But one obstacle to this is the current bylaws and restrictions that can stop an idea by impeding costs or barring design concepts outright.

The city's 1991 comprehensive plan outlined land use goals as reviewing code and enforcement to “make it clean that Auburn is committed to a standard of excellence in property and development conditions” and to create positive incentives to improve property maintenance and upgrade neighborhoods.

The Pearsons say they love the space their second-floor apartment of 35 years affords them.

“It's very cosmopolitan, I guess you would say,” Jay Pearson said. “It's like a New York City loft; large rooms, high ceilings ...”

The location provides them with a full-service grocery store, Auburn Public Theater, and restaurants all within walking distance.

They wanted to convert the third floor into a residential unit as well, but the codes would have forced them to install an elevator to reach the top apartment.

“Well, that was cost prohibited and we thought it was pretty ridiculous,” Jay Pearson said.

The government needs to make buying and refurbishing central buildings more economically feasible, Jay Pearson said. This would bring more people to the area and cause a thriving business district. Another added bonus is that residents with staked interest in their structures will want to maintain and improve their investment.

However, owners often are hesitant to make improvements to their structures to avoid property tax assessment hikes.

Another issue that gives owners pause is turning their spaces into low-income housing. The low income housing tax credit program is one such plan that pushes affordable housing in downtown areas, which often contain a variety of services and are centrally located.

“At the time, they had programs to make it low-income, so we were totally against that. We thought they should have made it the opposite, more upscale housing so the buildings would be worth more,” Jay Pearson said.

A resolution floated in front of the Auburn City Council last month allowing the planning office to send out requests for qualifications for a consultant to review and suggest changes to the city's current codes in order to make affordable housing opportunities.

Any reforms would have to remain within the guidelines and requirements of the state. The resolution was in response to the housing market Novogradac and Company prepared for the city that suggested reviewing regulations related to the building, housing, fire and zoning codes.

“The city of Auburn intends to encourage renovations by improving the permitting and enforcement processes,” the request for qualifications states. The city planning department wants a system that is easy to understand and affordable.

Cynthia Aikman, economic development program manager, stressed the need for amendments to the current codes.

The city can't apply amendments and changes in the state codes because it doesn't coincide with the city regulations. A firm or consultant can find the nuances in the language and fix any overlap, she said.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Economic Development Initiative grant will fund the service. Council will bid out the project with a request for qualifications. This process means the city does not have to accept the bid on cost alone, or in other words, lowest bidder doesn't necessarily get the job.

As people's lives, needs and communities changed bit by bit, codes and regulations changed little by little to accommodate the new situations. This means the municipality needs to examine the whole picture and make it one cohesive course of action.

“We want smart codes that work with us,” Aikman said.

BID President Tony Piccolo points to downtown dwellers as an important factor in increasing activity and creating a stronger core downtown.

The Cayuga County Tourism office commissioned a study that expressed the need for downtown housing especially the Baby Boom Generation. Mostly older people who don't want to care for lawns and maintain homes, but want to be in the thick of the city and its services.

With the Schine Theater and the Auburn Public Theater, there's been an amazing burst of activity, Piccolo said.

“All they really need to do is relax the codes to make it easy on people wanting to refurbish their buildings,” he said. “The demand is there.”

Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311 ext 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net