A scaled-back proposal to revive Downtown Prince George is about to go through a 30-day counter-petition process and there are definitely those for and against the idea.
On one side are supporters like Kirk Gable and Darren Low and on the other are opponents like Roger Creuzot and Kelli Steer.
Somewhere in the middle is Jim Brinkman.
Because it includes an expansion of the boundaries, the owner of Books and Company on Third Avenue at Rupert will be a new member of DPG, formally known as the Downtown Business Improvement Association, if the proposal wins approval from downtown property owners.
Brinkman, who argued against the previous proposal when it went through the same process in late 2008, said he supports in principle this latest version.
One of DPG's key functions will be to hold events to draw shoppers downtown but because Books and Company is so far away from the core, Brinkman said the benefit to his business will be limited. It will also cost him more than $1,000 a year in a levy collected by the city on behalf of DPG.
"But I'm also a member of the chamber of commerce and I get nothing out of that but what it does for the city I find important to support," he said and added the DPG has helped in terms of increasing policing and beautification in the area.
Perhaps the biggest booster is Gable whose been the DPG's long-time president, and he's the first to admit this is a less ambitious proposal.
It calls for an annual budget of $237,000 in 2010 rising to $251,422 in 2012. That's still up from the average $110,000 DPG was spending in previous years but way down from the $343,000 pitched in 2008.
As a result, the levy for 2010 is expected to be $1.36 per $1,000 of property value -- the final figure depends on total assessed value for the area -- down from $1.70 in the 2008 version. According to Gable, the median cost for a property will be $393 a year and there will be a cap of $10,000 per property.
A big feature, in Gable's view, is that the budget is set before a rate per $1,000 is determined in contrast to simply establishing a rate and seeing the revenue rise and fall with the annual ups and downs in assessed values.
"What we've got now is a fixed budget rather than a fixed levy and it makes more sense for the BIA because it gives us certainty for the next three years in terms of what our budget's going to be," he said.
The lower budget will mean less staff and fewer activities than planned in the 2008 version. Staff will be reduced from four to two positions - an executive director at $55,000 to $60,000 a year and a secretary at $30,000 to $35,000 a year - and the ambassador program, a safety and security measure that involved hired help with two-way radios, will be cut.
"We backed away on the advice of our membership who felt that the work that the RCMP is doing is the RCMP's work," Gable said.
DPG's core responsibility of advocating for the downtown will remain in place and it will focus on two programs for the next three years:
- A "clean and safe" partnership with the city and social agencies where people with employment barriers will be out sweeping streets, painting over graffiti and picking up litter. The cost is about $40,000 a year and an additional $27,500 would be spent on flower baskets.
- Marketing and events to draw shoppers to the area with $35,000 assigned to that activity in 2010. "Kind of like what Pine Centre does for its tenants," said Gable.
Gable can count on City Furniture co-owner Darren Low for support. That's an about face from 2008 when Low's partner, Ray Kandola, was an outspoken opponent, because the boundaries would have included Kandola Place at Victoria and 10th and because of the overall expense.
"City Furniture is definitely on the side of the DBIA," Low said. "We feel that the downtown needs some representation for the businesses with the current city council to have a chance to make any headway."
The boundaries will be extended but not by as much as attempted in 2008. Notably, property owned along the west side of Vancouver Street owned by Dirk Loedel, who was an outspoken opponent, is no longer in the proposal.
But property owned by Gold's Gym owner Roger Creuzot and the Coast Inn of the North, managed by Kelli Steer, remain inside the line on the southern edge of the zone and neither is happy about that.
Creuzot, who estimates DPG will cost him $2,500 to $3,000 a year, contends clean and safe should be strictly a city responsibility and maintains too much of the budget is going into salaries and administration and not enough into events and marketing.
"If you've got $35,000 for marketing and events, you could deal with that in an afternoon," he said. "It's not right."
Moreover, Creuzot argues the $10,000 cap means the smaller property owners will have to take on more of the burden to lessen the load on the larger ones, which he contends is unfair.
In Creuzot's view, DPG should be nothing more than an advisory board made up of volunteers and the city should take on a bigger role with programs and improvements covered by the taxpayer in general.
"It belongs to everybody so I think it should be paid for by everybody," he said.
Gable said the DPG's tasks are "too much and too important to try and do it with a bunch of volunteers" and its role, in part, is to attract city, provincial and federal funding for projects like upgraded streetscapes in the downtown.
Like it was in 2008, Coast Inn remains against being included. The hotel will pay the maximum $10,000 a year for an organization that's more oriented to merchants than hoteliers said Steer.
"The only thing we have in common is our geography, our proximity to one another," she said. "Our businesses do not have a lot in common as far as their hiring somebody to run marketing programs and such. I'm not sure how that's going to be a benefit for all the businesses that are captured in the boundaries."
Even if the Coast Inn was located in the middle of downtown, the chain would be against, Steer said. Officials at the Ramada Downtown had not returned repeated phone calls this week but Gable said he'd be surprised if the Ramada opposed the plan, noting it's been a strong supporter in the past and has sat on the DPG board for the last 10 years.
Gable said the proposed territory is the same area as the city's central business district.
"It's just a boundary but in this case it does represent zoning rights and responsibilities," Gable said. "You have certain opportunities with the zoning that you have within that boundary and it's generally recognized as our downtown."
Support from the two hotels is important. If half the property owners representing half the total assessed value downtown express opposition to the proposal by the Feb. 15 deadline for the counter-petition process, the proposal is dead.
That the onus is on the property owners to express opposition is something Creuzot says is unfair. But Gable said that because of privacy laws, the city cannot provide a list of property owners which would hinder a campaign to get out the vote. Instead, the city will send out notices to property owners on its property tax list.
That said, the DPG has accumulated a list of its own over the years and a small group of canvassers has been deployed to gather expressions of support as a way to bolster its case when the item goes back to city council for a final discussion.
"Just to give people a sense that we are asking for support and it's not just a reverse petition," Gable said.
Gable, who stressed he won't receive a salary if the proposal goes through, said the opposition comes down to cost.
"I don't blame them, times are tough and it's not easy to commit to paying more when you're looking at dwindling revenues but the question I would ask is 'are you going be better off with a BIA or without one?'" Gable said.
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
