Petition circulating against reviving downtown BIA
Disbanding organization caused ‘a lot of frustration and a lot of anger’
A Niagara Falls business owner says he’s creating a petition he hopes will receive widespread support from downtown merchants to ensure a business improvement association in the district doesn’t rematerialize — at least not during the current term of city council.
“I’m going to make sure that the city knows that there are enough Queen Street members that do not want the BIA restored,” said Joedy Burdett, who owns a tinting business on Bridge Street.
“In my opinion, what should happen is that during this sitting of council, the council that dissolved the BIA, they should never be allowed to resurrect the BIA. The way that they (disbanded the BIA), without any notice, they caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people — a lot of frustration and a lot of anger.”
He said in 2026, when the next term of council is elected, “the former members of the BIA should decide whether they want to go through that whole process again.”
Burdett said his business is “just outside of the boundary” of the BIA, but he got involved before Niagara Falls city council dissolved the embattled organization last March.
After meeting behind closed doors to receive advice subject to solicitor-client privilege, council ratified in open session a repeal of a bylaw to establish the downtown BIA board of management and assume all assets and liabilities of the organization.
The municipality continued to charge a tax levy to “address any excess in the liabilities of the downtown BIA beyond the assets until such time as that the excess has
been satisfied.”
Burdett said merchants are frustrated the city “dragged on” with the levy and that the former BIA office is now being used for a Magnificent Women’s Market.
“The merchants that are there, they should probably try to do some merchant association where they all do it with themselves, and if they want participation with the city, then they’re actually going there as a separate entity,” he said.
Despite concerns from many members, city council approved the BIA’s 2022 budget of $591,604, including a levy of $406,604. That was up from the 2021 levy of $390,248, which was an 86 per cent increase from 2020.
The BIA board approved a $908,918 budget for 2023, which included a levy of $463,571, with the remainder coming from grants, sponsorships, vendor fees and HST rebate.
That budget, and vote/meeting process, also ruffled some feathers among members.
In recent years, some downtown businesspeople voiced their frustrations with the direction of the BIA, budget increases, meeting processes, elections and communication and transparency issues.
In November, city staff met with a few dozen merchants and residents to outline the path forward following last spring’s dissolution.
During that session, Niagara Falls’ acting economic development officer, Dean Spironello, outlined how the city and downtown got to this point, as well as options for the future and how city hall and the area’s businesses can get there.
The options going forward could see a new BIA re-established for the downtown. Such a move would be subject to certain rules under the Municipal Act and businesses would pay a levy to fund BIA projects and expenses.
A second option would be a merchant’s association, which Spironello described as a more informal organization that wouldn’t be subject to the same oversight of a BIA and be funded through a more voluntary system.
Lastly, businesses could opt to have no organization, though Spironello said “it’s important that we collectively understand what won’t be available” under that scenario.
“Flower installation, for instance, would cease in 2024 and would likely require some kind of organization to get going again.”
Last November, Spironello said the plan was to start engaging with stakeholders in 2024.
Spironello said he’s now in the planning stage for the stakeholder engagement and “should have it finalized within the next two weeks,” at which time he can provide more details.
Asked if he would support Burdett’s petition, Tony Barranca, a longtime downtown business owner and member of the BIA’s last board of directors, said “yes and no.”
“I would like to see what the city finalizes before we make this decision,” he said, adding he has concerns with how the BIA issue has been handled,
“As far I’m concerned, to be honest, I don’t think we want the BIA back because of the previous experience we had and the abuse we took from the city and the way they cancelled the BIA.”