The BIA continues

By Courtney Bachar/The Oshawa Express/LJI Reporter

The Downtown Oshawa Business Improvement Area (BIA) will continue on.

Despite council voting to disband the organization at a special council meeting last week, the BIA remains in operation as council defeated a motion at Monday’s city council meeting to repeal Bylaw 94-74.

According to city solicitors, the BIA continues to exist because of Bylaw 94-74 and the repeal bylaw not being passed by council.

Councillor Brian Nicholson, who originally voted to disband the BIA, says the actions from council at Monday’s meeting were “utterly disrespectful.”

“It’s time we stop playing games with the future of the downtown,” says Nicholson, noting there was a democratic vote last week after much debate with a final 6-2 decision to dissolve the BIA.

“It strikes me what we have done today is create chaos in the downtown,” he adds.

Nicholson says the BIA has accepted the decision and sent a letter to its membership and the community has been informed and all council is doing by changing the vote now is creating “uncertainty, negativity, more dispute, and more pain and hurt among the downtown, and at the end of the day it will result in gaining nothing.”

Councillor John Gray brought forward a motion, which was seconded by Nicholson, to reconsider council’s decision on the repeal bylaw, which required a two-thirds majority.

“If we don’t do [this], we will be in a series of limbos that is going to create havoc and dispute in the downtown and frame this council into disrespect,” says Nicholson, who urged council to consider the item carefully.

However, the reconsideration lost 5-3 in a recorded vote.

Oshawa council voted to disband the Downtown Oshawa Business Improvement Area (BIA) at a Dec. 10 special meeting of council after BIA members participated in a recent survey on whether or not to dissolve the organization.

In total, 47 of the 223 eligible members cast their ballots, in which 28 members voted to dissolve the organization.

Councillors heard from BIA members on both sides at a recent special meeting before deciding the fate of the organization.

Darryl Sherman, president of Wilson Furniture and member of the BIA, says the time has come to disband the BIA, noting only 19 members voted to retain the organization.

“The BIA has had a good run,” he says, noting the BIA was created as an alternative to a shopping centre or mall manager with a role of helping to promote retail, hold sidewalk sales and help beautify the downtown.

“The downtown [has been] described as a growing residential neighbourhood,” he says, noting it is now being offered up as a future cultural hub, growing neighbourhood, and “a dynamic urban experience.”

He says it no longer makes sense for downtown businesses to be paying an additional five per cent tax levy compared to other commercial properties in other parts of the city.

He adds with the continuing impact of COVID-19, there is more distress and growing commercial vacancy rates downtown.

“Based on the future of downtown Oshawa’s development, and the current realities of COVID-19, it’s definitely not fair and does not make sense to continue to charge the downtown commercial properties more than commercial properties elsewhere in the city,” he says.

Sherman notes as one of the volunteers who has dedicated more than 15 years to the organization, the decision to disband the BIA was not a conclusion he wanted, however he says it is the right one.

“The time has come to move on.”

While many members spoke of why the BIA should go, some also spoke of how the dissolution will affect its members.

Kyle Kornic, one of the owners of Brew Wizards Board Game Café on Celina Street says he can’t see disbanding the BIA as anything positive.

“What we’ll lose by losing the BIA will far outweigh anything than being able to save a bit on property taxes,” he says.

Amber Derby, director of sales for the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, who works in businesses development for the hotel, says there is a dedicated group of volunteers in the downtown Oshawa business community that are working together to improve the downtown.

She says it’s in the hotel’s best interest, as well as her own best interest as an Oshawa resident, to have a “vibrant, safe downtown where I can attract guests to come stay at the hotel and to enjoy what Oshawa has to offer.”

She says having successful key events such as Kars on King and SummerFest brings a flood of people to the downtown core, “which reaps economic benefits and instills civic pride.”

“I agree there is some room for improvement, but let’s improve upon the deficiencies and not simply blow up the vehicle,” she says. “We need a constant, positive focus on the downtown.”

She adds the voter turnout on the ballot was not a clear representation of all businesses in the BIA.

Councillor Derek Giberson says the 12.5 per cent of BIA members who participated in the survey should not have the “power to decide for hundreds of others.”

“Does that seem like a reasonable basis for this council to go recklessly over a cliff and dissolve the BIA? I don’t think so,” says Giberson.

However, Nicholson says BIA members were given ample notice and the opportunity to cast their ballot on the matter, which council should respect.

“You don’t get to reject the vote simply because you don’t like the result,” says Nicholson. “This council, because it doesn’t make decisions for the BIA members, asked the membership to express their point of view in a dually independent, city managed and non-partisan vote,” he continues.

While he says democracy is a difficult process, it’s the best process for determining whether or not a membership wishes to continue an organization.

“The membership voted in an overwhelming majority, of those that participated, to terminate the BIA,” he adds. “This is a matter of ethics and transparency, and council should not go against the wishes of the membership of the BIA.

Ultimately, council voted 6-2 to dissolve the BIA. Councillors Nicholson, Gray, Jane Hurst, Rick Kerr, Rosemary McConkey, and Bob Chapman were in favour while Councillors Giberson, and Bradley Marks were opposed. Mayor Dan Carter, Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri and Councillor John Neal declared conflicts of interest.