Plans for the re-establishment of a Sarnia downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA) are headed for a vote.
The initiative would enlist downtown property owners to pay a special levy to be used to operate the BIA including marketing efforts to attract more people downtown.
Realtor Patrick Coutu, a proponent of the BIA, said area business owners will soon have their say.
"Starting a BIA is legislated through the Ontario government, so the step that we're at now is finalizing who the stakeholders are in the designated area, and that'll be done in the near future. Once that's completed, then packages will go out to all the stakeholders instructing them for the vote, so probably within I'd say four months we'll have an answer."
Coutu said Sarnia's downtown is probably one of the best destinations in southwestern Ontario, and that a BIA is a tool for the downtown to ensure future prosperity.
He said most business owners he's spoken within the area, which stretches from a part of Wellington Street in the south to Derby Lane in the north, support the idea.
"I've been going through a list of 160 stakeholders, which will grow a little bit as part of the process, but people that the steering committee and myself have spoken to, absolutely a majority are in support."
Coutu said, not surprisingly, there's also been some opposition from downtown businesses.
"Commercial taxes are not the cheapest in Sarnia, so anytime you're talking to somebody it's a decision that these business people have to make as to whether or not deploying funds to a BIA is something that they see as beneficial, so there's obviously going to be a discussion about that, but overwhelmingly the majority seem to be very supportive."
Sarnia previously had a BIA, but the program folded in the early '90s.
Coutu said that doesn't concern him.
"When you think of the stakeholders that are downtown right now, many of them have taken dilapidated properties and you know, turned them into vibrant, awesome properties, whether that's the businesses that are thriving in there or the landowners, but you can see the type of people we have there don't really necessarily care about past failures, right? Because think of the mindset. We're just more concerned about future prosperity."
Members of the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce have been specifically asked for their opinions on the initiative. Those opinions will be forwarded to those who are advocating for the establishment of a BIA.
