BIA
Council will consider a new business improvement area (BIA) bylaw proposed by the Sechelt Downtown Business Association (SDBA).
Money taken in through the BIA bylaw funds the SDBA, which works to enhance the downtown core, inform the community about the businesses there and encourage new business to move to the area.
The old bylaw expired on July 31, 2016 and staff have been in discussions with the SDBA about crafting a new bylaw since then, according to a staff report received at the Jan. 18 regular meeting of council.
The report stated the SDBA wants to establish a new bylaw for a five-year period, expand the service area boundary to include additional commercial properties on the northeast side of Wharf Avenue, set an annual requisition rate of $70,000 and look at an “alternative cost recovery method” to get the funding from businesses in the expanded BIA.
Under the old bylaw, businesses in the BIA were each charged the same $525 parcel tax, regardless of size, so the mall was paying the same parcel tax as a small business in downtown Sechelt, for example.
The SDBA would like the new bylaw to be more equitable.
Council was unanimously supportive of having staff craft a new BIA bylaw with the SDBA’s suggestions in mind, for consideration at a future council meeting.
Mayor Bruce Milne told SDBA members at the meeting that he hoped the “potentially new approach to the tax requisition gets full support from your members. We’ll support you in any way we can on that,” he added.
Sign bylaw
Council approved a sign variance bylaw for Pet Valu in Trail Bay Mall that will allow the store to keep its exterior sign facing the highway.
The overall size of the exterior Pet Valu sign is six metres, while the sign bylaw in Sechelt allows for a maximum size of three metres.
The majority of the sign is black with only the lettering illuminated and the lettering height does conform to the bylaw.
Coun. Noel Muller said he felt comfortable allowing the sign variance for Pet Valu.
“In this particular instance, the way that the sign is placed, the way that it’s viewed from the highway and other particular areas, it does warrant a variance, in my opinion, to provide a natural course of business for this applicant,” Muller said.
Milne noted members of the planning committee intend to look at Sechelt’s sign bylaw in its entirety to see if it needed adjustment, “which is a good thing.”
Without further discussion, the sign bylaw variance was passed with only Coun. Alice Lutes voting against allowing it.
Muller
During councillor reports on Jan. 18 Muller assured the public he wasn’t going to resign his seat before his term on council is up.
“Over the break I received a number of emails from concerned citizens noticing my absence at a variety of council meetings, wondering if I was perhaps on the verge of resigning my seat,” Muller said.
He pointed to other councils in B.C. that have seen the majority of their councillors resign in recent months as the reason for the public’s concern.
“I just wanted to say right now, before the gathered audience as well as council, I have no intention of resigning my seat.”
He said that although he’s been “frustrated with many aspects” of his role on council and trying to juggle his work and private life, “it has also been rewarding.”
“We’ve got two years left in this term,” Muller said. “Hopefully we’re going to come back this year with renewed positivity, and just work for the best for Sechelt because that’s what I most enjoy.”
Website
The District of Sechelt has launched a newly redesigned website that’s more mobile and user friendly.
“This new look is the culmination of a six-month-long collaborative project involving Sechelt communication and information technology staff,” a release on the new website stated.
“The implementation and consultation process included a public survey and a focus group.”
See the new site at www.sechelt.ca. Feedback on the redesign is welcome at [email protected] or by completing the online form.
