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$12M to revitalize Edmonton’s ‘special needs’ neighbourhoods
By Gordon Kent, edmontonjournal.comOctober 21, 2009 5:02 PMBe the first to post a comment
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Chinatown is an area of Edmonton that will benefit from a $12-million program to revitalize Edmonton’s ‘special needs’ neighbourhoods.
Chinatown is an area of Edmonton that will benefit from a $12-million program to revitalize Edmonton’s ‘special needs’ neighbourhoods.
Photograph by: John Lucas, edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON — The city wants to spend more than $12 million luring new businesses and residents to seven distressed inner-city Edmonton neighbourhoods in hopes of reversing their decline.
The three-year program would give money to housing developments, companies that move into vacant space or construct something new, and firms that fix up their building’s facade.
The scheme, given tentative approval Wednesday by council’s executive committee, is aimed at revitalizing pedestrian-oriented “main streets” such as Chinatown, Alberta Avenue, Beverly and Inglewood, says a city report.
It must still be passed by council as part of the 2010 budget.
Details include:
— $7,000 for apartments or row housing ($12,000 if they’re part of a housing-commercial project), for a total of $2.5 million a year.
— matching assistance of up to $15,000 for startup businesses using vacant buildings (or up to $40,000 to construct new commercial space), totalling $600,000 a year.
— total of $900,000 annually to continue the successful facade improvement program.
Such assistance to the inner city will encourage more private investment in these “special needs neighbourhoods” and boost property values, the report says.
A similar plan started in 1998 has been lauded as a success for helping attract more than 10,000 residents to downtown lofts and apartments through a $4,500 grant per housing unit to developers.
Mayor Stephen Mandel said it’s a good program that should boost city property taxes as districts that need revitalization grow.
“We need to get encouragement for people to do things in these areas … we need to help these neighbourhoods to get going, 107th Avenue needs a push,” he said.
“It’s a risky thing to do at these risky economic times, but I hope council moves forward.”
However, he isn’t sure where the money for this project should come from, saying it might be difficult to use general taxation when the special-needs neighbourhoods aren’t in all parts of Edmonton.
“Coun. (Dave) Thiele (would have) to tell people in his area ‘we’re using you tax dollars to pay for someone else’s improvements.’ ”
One alternative source of cash might be the approximately $75 million coming from Epcor to pay for the Gold Bar sewage treatment plant, Mandel said.
Coun. Ben Henderson also wants business associations to indicate whether some types of operations, such as massage parlours, should be excluded from the program, as liquor stores, pawnshops, gas stations and heavy equipment shops already are.
“I’m guessing the communities would not be happy if these were the kinds of businesses we were paying to renovate.”
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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/revitalize+Edmonton+neighbourhoods/2129598/story.html
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