Downtown Facade Restorations

[halifaxboyns]

If there is one thing I've learned as a planner, especially out here in Alberta...you can't regulate stupid.

It doesn't matter what you do, I don't see how you can force someone to make their storefront look in the same quality as Granville Mall if they don't want to do it.

Someone123 has a point and it may just be that the facade needs a good blast of water and cleaning, but I am honestly not sure how you could do that in a regulation.

I don't agree with Waye on making Granville a street again. I think the answer is more along the lines of encouraging residential at that end of downtown, combined with interesting stores and you could then see activity.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Waye Mason

Anyway, I don't think you can and should go to someone who owns a building and say "you bought an ugly building and didn't make it beautiful and now you are getting a fine." That does not seem just.

You are setting up a straw man. That's not how it has to happen. A better approach would be for the city to facilitate improvements to the street.

If the incentives alone don't work then step 2 is for the city to start contacting owners to encourage them to take some kind of free money available to fix the facades (I am not sure if they did this for Barrington).

[Empire]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

If there is one thing I've learned as a planner, especially out here in Alberta...you can't regulate stupid.

It doesn't matter what you do, I don't see how you can force someone to make their storefront look in the same quality as Granville Mall if they don't want to do it.

Someone123 has a point and it may just be that the facade needs a good blast of water and cleaning, but I am honestly not sure how you could do that in a regulation.

I don't agree with Waye on making Granville a street again. I think the answer is more along the lines of encouraging residential at that end of downtown, combined with interesting stores and you could then see activity.

Isn't part of Barrington St. restoration aimed at bringing back some original condition to these buildings? If you receive grants/tax breaks one would assume there are some conditions of how the renovations should proceed.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by Empire

Isn't part of Barrington St. restoration amimed at bringing back some original condition to these buildings? If you receive grants/tax breaks one would assume there are some conditions of how the renovations should proceed.

I think that's the approach that someone123 is saying in his post just before yours; which would be how I would go about it.

Not to fine or further tax, but incentive people to do it.
Perhaps a rebate on your property tax for a couple of years? Something like that?

If you give the right incentives, people will jump on board.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

If you give the right incentives, people will jump on board.

Like I said, sadly a lot of incentives are currently the opposite of what they should be. If you neglect your building for example your assessment can go down, which means you pay less in tax.

There should be a combination of land tax (based on the lot, not what is built on it) plus user fees based on the estimated or actual cost of services rendered.

[Keith P.]

Hell, we ought to be happy that Ideal Bikes is still in business and is occupying that Barrington storefront for a productive use, unlike so much of the rest of that moribund street.

Granville Mall is an example of all the things that heritage types and planners do wrong. In fact most of Historic Properties can be considered a similarly bad example. Looks pretty, doesn't work worth a damn.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Hell, we ought to be happy that Ideal Bikes is still in business and is occupying that Barrington storefront for a productive use, unlike so much of the rest of that moribund street.

Granville Mall is an example of all the things that heritage types and planners do wrong. In fact most of Historic Properties can be considered a similarly bad example. Looks pretty, doesn't work worth a damn.

Historic properties and Granville Mall are way off the beaten path. If the buildings looked like Idea Bikes or most of the buildings on Barrington there would be zero tenants or tourists.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

I think that's the approach that someone123 is saying in his post just before yours; which would be how I would go about it.

Not to fine or further tax, but incentive people to do it.
Perhaps a rebate on your property tax for a couple of years? Something like that?

If you give the right incentives, people will jump on board.

Incentives are a great approach. However, if someone is not interested in incentives and allows their building to deteriorate to an unsightly condition they should receive a fine instead of a bonus in the form of reduced property tax.