drbia – NEWSMAGRENFREW

The Downtown Renfrew Business Improvement Area — DRBIA.— is an arm’s length group that operates under the auspices of the Town of Renfrew, and as such receives a budget from the corporation to pursue initiatives and planning dedicated towards improvement and promotion of the town’s downtown core.

What makes such a group particularly effective is the fact that it’s composed exclusively of business owners and commercial property owners that all share a keen interest in the viability and economic success of downtown, the heart of almost any community. These business and commercial interests all contribute to the DRBIA operating budget as well, as they’re all assessed a membership levy, something that presents a bit of an issue on another topic, but not to this one.

The point is that we have people who are invested doing the day to day stuff, but there’s also a financial and legislative tether that means that Renfrew Town Council is the supreme authority when it comes to DRBIA decision-making.

Two items related to DRBIA caught my attention recently in a way that made me want to comment.

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Renfrew’s downtown Business Improvement Area is expanding, pushing its borders outwards into the ancillary streets, or streets secondary to the main drag of Raglan Street.

This is no small thing, especially if you happen to live, and/or do business within this tertiary area that is now to be annexed by this entity that derives its authority through Renfrew Town Council, and through them from the Municipal Act of 2001.

My assertion that the Municipal Act is a deeply flawed piece of legislation is not abated by recent events, and this is just another one of those recent events under discussion. It makes me wonder if the authors of that piece of legislation had drafted it while at their local pub, since it causes as many problems as it sets out to solve, and satisfies the argument that the crafters were either egregiously distracted, had agendas to satisfy, or were just functionally incompetent.

The BIA invasion into the surrounding environs is another one of those seemingly endless staff-driven things that appears before a somewhat perplexed Council for approval, almost after-the-fact, because the timelines tend to be pretty tight. I wonder what the actual reasoning is?

Is the tax levy that members pay into the organization not enough to fund their projects? Is it an attempt to broaden their tax base to beef up their financials?

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Tag: drbia

DRBIA SEEKS PERMISSION FOR HISTORICAL SIGN AND NATIVITY SCENE

BIA SEEKS TO EXPAND ITS BORDERS