City approves staff to draft a bylaw to disband CCDA

The petition was verified and it met the requirement of at least 25 percent of the taxable businesses in the Business Improvement Area (BIA). Mayor Ted Clugston believes it was exceeded by a large margin.

As it was recommended on the agenda, city council voted unanimously to direct staff to draft a bylaw to disestablish the CCDA.

Staff will draft and bring forward the bylaw at a future meeting.

As for the next steps, council must pass first reading of a bylaw to disestablish the CCDA to allow for a vote of the taxpayers of the BIA.

According to the city, if the votes to disestablish the CCDA were successful, the city would no longer be required to collect the BIA tax.

Mayor Ted Clugston says there is one complicating factor should the CCDA disband, and that’s the Monarch Theatre.

“And so we will have to figure out what to do with the Monarch Theatre which is quite a unique asset and one of the very first things that opened up on 2^nd Street when everything was vacant.”

Clugston says hopefully a not-for-profit will be looking, adding that the Monarch Theatre was profitable pre-COVID.

“And perhaps if you got the asset for a dollar, perhaps you could make a go of it, so maybe a service club, maybe the Friends of the Monarch. The goal of the city though is not to be running it,” Clugston added.

by Chantal Wagner

City approves staff to draft a bylaw to disband CCDA

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