Business operators in the downtown core will vote on the future of the City Centre Developemnt Agency this spring. City clerk Angela Cruickshank told council she has confirmed that a petition calling for a vote to dissolve it has surpassed the prerequisite 25 per cent support from estimated 190 members.--News photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A vote to potentially fold the City Centre Development Agency will be held his spring, it was announced at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
City clerk Angela Cruickshank confirmed to council that a petition submitted late last month meets a threshold of 25 per cent of active CCDA stakeholders. Now, council will have 30 days to being the process toward a vote of members in the next 120 days.
CCDA chair Jeremy Silver told the News on Wednesday that he’s prepared to hear what his members have to say.
“Our position is that we’re on the stakeholders’ side with whatever they decide,” he said. “But we’re actively petitioning members and communicating what the CCDA does.
“There’s a lot of sense to what we do, and, I believe, a vote to disband would cost members and taxpayers.”
He said benefits include events as well as a street maintenance contract with the city that remains in place despite the reduction of a grant in the 2021 city budget.
That document also reduces the requisition collected from downtown business owners to provide general operating funds.
Petition booster Shila Sharps has previously said the group has outlived its mandate and caters to merchants that now make up a minority of business owners in the core, rather than service providers.
The petition comes after some controversy in January when city council and the board opened up about discussions about lowering the grant and potentially removing city officials from decision making.
Council representative on the board, Coun. Kris Samraj has previously said the organization has suffered in the past from a lack of interest from members.
On Tuesday he said the petition was “generally a positive step” in that stakeholders are now discussing the organization and will determine its future.
Council will now have to pass first reading of a disestablishment bylaw that instructs a vote by members take place in the following 120 days.
If passed by a majority of voters, the bylaw would take effect as a specified date no sooner than six weeks after the date.
If the vote fails, council must rescind the bylaw and would be barred accepting new dissolution petitions for a period of two years.
The CCDA exists as a business improvement area defined under provincial regulations, which gives the city authority to collect the special levy and remit it to the CCDA.
The legal entity came into existence in late 1985 known as the Downtown Business Revitalization Zone Association.
Previously the Downtown Business Association was a voluntary organization, and some members launched an initial petition to disband the DBRZA, though it was scuttled when council amended the bylaw to cap membership fees.
Another business revitalization zone in the city, the North Railway Exchange, was formed in 1995 but dissolved by vote in 2000. With 55 eligible to cast ballots, dissolve won the vote by a margin of 6-4, conducted at the Helen Beny Gibson Lounge,
The format of a CCDA vote has not yet been determined.
