Jan. 23—LAKE PLACID — Millions of dollars in state grants are coming to the north country villages of Canton, Alexandria Bay and Lowville through the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and the New York FORWARD program.

In an announcement from the Olympic park in Lake Placid on Tuesday, Governor Kathleen C. Hochul announced Lowville will be the recipient of the $10 million 2024 DRI grant for the north country.

Hochul said Lowville officials submitted a plan called “restore, rediscover and connect.”

The plan Lowville officials submitted, Hochul said, would transform the village into a regional center focused on local tourism.

“They’re at the intersection of the Adirondack Mountains, Tug Hill Plateau and 1000 Islands,” she said, joking that she would soon be skiing in the Tug Hill herself.

“Watch out for me in the fields,” she said.

Hochul said Lowville’s plan would help to improve public spaces in the village, redevelop blighted buildings and attract development for their core downtown area.

“They’ll become a regional center without losing any of it’s small town charm,” she said.

Canton and Alexandria Bay will both receive $4.5 million from the New York FORWARD grant program. Hochul said both villages submitted plans to renovate blighted or run-down areas of the village centers, including housing.

“They’re both developing strategic plans to turn rundown parts of their downtown’s into housing,” she said. “That’s the right answer, and revitalizing their downtowns in the process.”

All three villages have become so-called “pro-housing communities,” having passed resolutions in their village councils to affirm their commitment to developing more housing within their borders and coordinate project approval plans and development strategies to encourage housing development. Hochul has made becoming a “pro-housing community” a requirement to receive executive discretionary grants like the DRI and NY FORWARD programs.

Housing is a major focus of Hochul’s administration in Albany. She sought to pass an aggressive plan to force local governments to build more housing, or lose their local planning approval power. That didn’t pass the legislature last year, and Hochul said she would pursue a more rewards-based plan, rather than a penalizing one, to build more housing this year. She also pledged to commit unused state-owned properties, including SUNY campuses and correctional facilities, as land for more housing development.

Hochul’s announcement Tuesday included a north country-focused breakdown of her 2025 executive budget proposal, with millions of dollars in grants, direct state funding and development planned.