The Downtown Victoria Business Association could become the second-largest in the province if the city enacts a new bylaw this week expanding the association’s downtown boundaries.
Council will consider the initiative Thursday after businesses on the fringes of downtown approached the DVBA about joining its ranks. Vancouver’s downtown business association is currently the largest in B.C.
Jeff Bray, chief executive of the 1,350-member association, said businesses outside the current boundaries saw value in what the organization was able to do on behalf of businesses and the downtown during the pandemic, including marketing, advocacy and managing security issues.
“Those are things that are of real value,” he said, adding the DVBA Clean Team’s work on cleaning up downtown, graffiti removal and being able to respond to specific areas quickly is a huge benefit.
“Property owners saw a real value for their tenants because we could be more responsive in some cases than they can,” said Bray.
If council approves the expansion, the Downtown Victoria Business Improvement Area would extend east from Blanshard Street to Cook Street and from Discovery Street north to Bay Street. The existing zone includes all of the rest of downtown and extends to parts of the legislature precinct.
Property owners had until 4 p.m. Monday to oppose the expansion. Council will vote on the new boundaries as long as 50 per cent of the property owners representing at least 50 per cent of the assessed value do not object. The city clerk is expected to tabulate results and report to council Thursday.
If the expansion is approved as expected, the DVBA membership would swell to more than 2,000 and the annual budget would be more than $1.7 million based on a levy on the commercial properties within the zone.
Bray said most of that money would already be spoken for, as existing programs would be expanded to handle a larger area.
He said the proposed new boundaries deliberately did not stray into areas like James Bay, Cook Street Village, Burnside-Gorge and Quadra Village.
Making the DVBA any bigger would make it difficult for the organization to be as responsive to businesses, Bray said.
“This is as big as we can be.”
Bray said he is open to working with neighbouring areas to help them develop their own business improvement associations.
In addition to Vancouver’s downtown business association, there are 22 other business improvement associations in that city.
