The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has designated Butler County as an urban county for the Community Development Block Grant program, which the county focuses utilizing funds from for water and sewer improvement projects.

“Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from HUD that the county has become an urban county,” Wendy Leslie, county CDBG administrator, announced at the Wednesday county commissioners meeting.

“So we made status, which means that we’ll be taking out the middleman now on CDBG and HOME funds and we’ll be dealing directly with HUD,” she said.

The middleman is the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which the county used to submit its CDBG and HOME applications to.

HOME funds are used to rehabilitate housing for low-income residents.

In addition, the urban designation increases the county’s yearly CDBG allocation as $1.4 million rather than the $930,000 it used to receive.

“So it’s a, I think, a very positive thing for the county and the residents that live here,” Leslie said.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel said urban status also extends the length of time the county has to spend the money.

The deadline to complete CDBG funded projects was three years, but is now eight years due to the designation.

“Keep in mind, and let me clarify, just because it’s HUD, doesn’t mean this is housing,” said Leslie Osche, commissioners chairman. “We have used these funds, CDBG funds, have been used by these municipalities for stormwater, water, sewer.”

As an example, she singled out the $4 million sewer system replacement project in Marion Township. Leslie said a township supervisor called her and said people were afraid the county was going to build low-income housing for low-income residents.

She said CDBG money is not used to build low-income housing, but the money can be used to rehabilitate housing for people that qualify.

“CDBG’s priorities, I will say, is water and sewage,” Leslie said.

She noted 70% of CDBG money has to be used to improve low- to moderate-income areas and support low- to moderate-income residents.

Commissioner Kim Geyer said a lot of farmers do not want the county to be designated as urban.

“We are not an urban county. That designation falls under CDBG and HOME funds,” Geyer said.

HUD designation as an urban county is determined by county population and distribution of low- and moderate-income residents.

The short time the county was given to submit the urban designation application to HUD may have played a part in nine municipalities deciding not to opt in, Leslie said.

The county was notified about the opportunity Aug. 11 by email and met with all 57 municipalities so they could decide to opt in or out of the program by Sept. 8. The application was due Sept. 15.

“They can’t even apply for state funding. They are out,” Leslie said about the nine municipalities.

“One in particular, we were going to be doing a project in and they opted out. So that was kind of a surprise,” Leslie said.

Now they lose access to that money and any future funding for the next three years, she said.