Downtown business owners will continue to tax themselves so they can be represented by the Downtown Business Improvement Association.
The DBIA is funded through a local service tax on properties in the subject area. The society's executive asked for a five-year renewal of their funding, but wanted to give their membership the opportunity to say no.
The 259 affected business or property owners had 30 days to counter petition the tax, which is expected to generate $212,863 in 2013. The remainder of the DBIA's $270,863 in revenue comes from Summerfest and the city's portion of the flower basket costs.
The city only received 11 petitions against the tax, representing about $13.9 million in assessed value of land and improvements in the area. In order to defeat the tax, at least 130 petitions representing $104.7 million of assessed land and improvement value were needed.
The previous DBIA bylaw expired March 31.
Hart neighbourhood considering own tax
Also on council's Monday evening agenda is an introductory report about the potential for setting up a sanitary sewer system for Hart Highlands residents.
Superintendent of operations Bill Gaal is recommending council support the process for a local area service tax on Wallace Crescent homeowners.
According to Gaal's report, residents have been asking about the possibility of entering into a local area service agreement with the city over the past few months to cover all of the system's installation costs, the connection from the main to the property line plus their individual onsite service connections work for 94 lots.
Municipalities don't contribute to the cost of hooking residential properties to sanitary sewers, but can borrow the funds to front the payment with the property owners paying them back through an additional line on their property tax bill. Wallace Crescent area residents would pay the money back over a 20-year period.
The city's contribution to the project would include costs for design, which will be done in-house and a portion of the repaving costs due to the age of the existing asphalt, said Gaal's report.
Attempts to begin this process were initiated more than a decade ago, but didn't get the necessary property owner support.
A preliminary information session was held for residents on Feb. 5, and the results of a survey handed out at the meeting suggested 69 per cent of the affected properties were in favour of the plan.
If council supports the recommendation, staff will prepare a bylaw with the amount required for borrowing and then residents will hold a formal vote on the tax.