AUBURN -- Despite a warning not to pad an application with properties to increase the amount of money the city can request, city leaders added another project to a grant application.

Auburn City Council unanimously went against staff recommendations and added a third property to the city's Restore NY Grant application Thursday.

Councilors pulled the resolution last week after prospective applicant Glenn Fletcher expressed disappointment his plan to refurbish a church into an event center was not included in this year's application. The city had included asking for funding to continue the Schine Theater renovation and for the Kalet's Department Store demolition.

The application can only include one project, but that project can contain properties linked by a single plan.

Director of Planning and Economic Development Jennifer Haines read a statement from the Empire State Development Corporation warning applicants not to create weak links between properties just to receive more money for those buildings.

Both councilors Thomas McNabb and Matt Smith wondered why the council had not seen the planned submission until it was complete, and why councilors did not have a chance to review the four other potential projects.

Haines said the revised application likely will have $1.3 million for the Schine Theater, $200,000 for Kalet's, and about $400,000 for Fletcher's Euterpe Hall. The city is limited by square footage as to how much money it can ask for.

Read the full report in Friday's edition of The Citizen.