Petition Against Downtown BIA Fails

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 01:38 PM

Prince George, B.C. - Prince George City Council can proceed with plans for a downtown business improvement area levy, after a petition against the proposed bylaw failed to garner enough support.

The council-led initiative was given first three readings back on January 4th, that started a 30-day-plus-one week period for opponents to rally against the DBIA levy.

The City has now released certified results of the petition, showing "26% of the owners representing 30% of assessed value of land and improvements petitioned against the “Downtown Business Improvement Area Bylaw No. 8263, 2010."

The results means the petition fails. To stop the bylaw, the petition would have needed to secure signatures from the owners of at least 50-percent of the parcels that would have been subject to the proposed tax, representing at least 50-percent of the assessed value of land.

The bylaw will now be returned for Council’s consideration on March 1.

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Posted on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 01:38 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: rayban68 on February 23 2010 1:52 PM

How is it possible that the City could have allowed this petition to be anything other than a "Reverse Petition" to match the bylaw??

Hypocritical in the extreme.

Posted by: Harbinger on February 23 2010 2:01 PM

Maybe instead of the next municipal election, maybe some people can "officially" declare themselves mayor and council and we can use reverse petitions to say they are not.

Posted by: Dragonmaster on February 23 2010 2:06 PM

Don't you know by now that anything related to enable gov'ts to reach further into the taxpayers pockets are always setup to favour those reaching into the pockets.

How to put an end to it is another question!

Posted by: Loki on February 23 2010 3:17 PM

I wonder how many business's will relocate outside the DBIA area?
I know it is very challenging to move a business location, but for up to $10k of additional costs on the line, it may become more worth it.

So much for down town improvement.

Posted by: ammonra on February 23 2010 4:03 PM

What percentage of the owners were the petitioners able to reach? Did everyone they were able to reach sign it? What percentage had the opportunity but refused to sign because they were in agreement with the levy? That information is missing from the article, but is needed to form an informed opinion.

As an example, if they approached 26% of the owners and everybody they approached signed the petition it would indicate that the majority were opposed to the levy. If they approached 90% of the owners, but only 26% signed, it would infer that the majority were in favour.

It is necessary to know what percentage of the owners they were able to contact and what the percentage of the value they represented for the information to mean anything.

Posted by: He spoke on February 23 2010 4:28 PM

Lets face it, the City of PG set it up for the petitioners to fail.

Posted by: interceptor on February 23 2010 6:07 PM

Ammonra has a good point except this has been in the news too much. If you own a business downtown and were opposed to this than you have to be involved. Otherwise it would be akin to not liking your government and then saying "Huh? I didnt know there was an election"

Posted by: Runner46 on February 23 2010 9:03 PM

Get with the program, the petition was not supported by the business people who own properties down town.
Move on for Gosh Sakes....

Posted by: wantsfun on February 23 2010 10:40 PM

I agree with ammonra. What percentage of business owners did they get a hold of especially when they would not release
all owners names and info for downtown. And to interceptor there are a lot of out of town owners that DON"T read or here of the PG news so how would they know? Just another sluff off by the city and our great new council to destroy downtown after all we only have to wait 35 years to enjoy what they are going to do downtown, thanks Mr Mayor and council, too bad we won't be here to enjoy it. Can't wait for the next election to see how many learned their lessons on the last vote.........

Posted by: Eagleone on February 24 2010 6:41 AM

Anything that is not done ethically, as is the case here with a reverse petition, risks alienating those that feel that were swindled, and the cost of that is far bigger than the benefits of another administrator making a 6-figure income downtown.

This was undemocratic and goes against the core values of what a democracy is all about (fairness in the administration of public policy). It set a horrible precedent and should be illegal in a real democracy that is governed by fair rules for every stakeholder on both sides of the proposal.

The question now become who will support candidates that support this new organization in the next municipal election... and who will support candidates that will forward laws to make this kind of thing an illegal process in the future?

Posted by: metalman on February 24 2010 9:58 AM

Todays meeting of the procrastinators society has been cancelled due to a lack of interest.
metalman.

Posted by: lmorge on February 24 2010 10:20 AM

Ha ha metalman! Yes, and from what I see of PG residents coming out to protest anything, they relied on the usual apathy to get this levy through.