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The merchants attending were mainly King St, retail operators. However, the area proposed for the scheme, which is bounded by William and Young "Streets, and Caroline and Regina Streets, also in- cludes all Waterloo Square tenants, numerous profes- sional offices, commercial outlets. Marsland Centre. a grocery store. a depart- ment store. dentists. law- yers and other professional people. DOW NTOWN'S FUTURE Everyone operating a business in the city core who pays municipal business assessment tax would be obliged to contribute to Judging from the poor tumout at a meeting Sept. 8, many Waterloo mer- chants and businessmen are unaware that aplan‘to turn the downtown core into a business improve- ment area could cost them more each year in taxes. Only 15 representatives from the more than 200 busi- nesses that could be affect- ed by the proposed business improvement levy attended the meeting at the Adult Recreation Centre to dis- cuss a proposal for beautify- ing and promoting the city core. Planting trees and erecting decorative street lamps as shown In this photo are possible ways the down, town could be improved to attract more shoppers, Deteriorating core or vital shopping centre? By Mary Stupart ... wtt.tetillllooelhironiiktllllle 121st Year No. 37 the business improvement fund if the scheme is ap- proved by council. The impetus to set up a business improvement area has come mainly from the Waterloo Downtown Business Association (WD. BA) a group of about 50 main street merchants. The WDBA called the meet- ing Wednesday to present their proposal to raise money to beautify and promote the core area. -. This fund. would be ad- ministered by a manage- ment board consisting of councillors and business- men. [ Representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism and Project: Sav- ing Small Business explain- ed that provincial legis- lation allows businessmen to set up business improve- ment areas with the help of the municipality. If city council agrees to declare the downtown a business improvement area, an ad- ditional annual tax, based on municipal business assess- ment, would be collected by the city from businesses in the impmvemenrarea. All merchants in the af- fected area would be ob- ligated to pay the business improvement tax. Failure to Wednesday, September 15, 1976 pay would result in the same penalties as failure to pay municipal business taxes. " Wayne Deyarmond, chair- man of the WDBA and own- er of ow Sports, said no definite plans have been made for use of the propos- ed business ' improvement funds. but possibilities in- clude promotion, advertis- ing, sidewalk beautification, tree planting and decora- tive lighting. . "As most people know, there is a lot of competi- tion (for downtown mer- chants) from other areas that are improved and shop- ping malls. If we don't want downtown Waterloo to de- teroriate I believe we have to set up a business im- provement area and beauti- fy downtown Waterloo. I'm sure everyone would like to do business and shop in a progressive area that is not deteriorating," he said. If a business improve- ment tax of 6 mills replaces the Christmas light levy. the cost to k-Mart would increase to $2,000. Small professional offices would pay $18 and medium-sized businesses would pay $80. A 6 mill levy could raise $20.000 for core improve- ment At the present time. all main street merchants along King St. between Wil- liam and Young Streets, pay a 1 mill taxasach year for Christmas decorations. This fund. which was initi- ated in 1972. drew no ob- jections at that time from the businessmen affected, said city finance commis- sioner, Don Schaefer. Be- cause the city purchased new lights in’ 1971, the fund currently contains $7,500. 1976 taxes could raise this toSl0.000. Under that system', the average, small professional office in Waterloo Square pays $3.41 per year. Large retail outlets such as the K-Mart department store contribute $348 per year. A store the size of Waterloo Stove pays $13.63. Business improvement area funds have been used in 30 Ontario communities including Toronto's Bloor West Village. St. Thomas, Hamilton's Hesse Village and London to revitalize the core business area, According to a Toronto newspaper survey. an im- proved core area has in- creased business 50 per- cent In the Bloor West Vil- Lage, at an average cost to merchants of $2 65 per week Although downtown Wa- terloo hasn't deteriorated as much as Bloor West. tm- provement of the core could return cwu' pride. provide Identity and self-respect for merchants. Increase Downtown Waterloo today has narrow sidewalks. overhanging signs. bumt- out and boarded-up stores. and little grean‘space. Members of the Waterloo Downtown Business Association would like to revitalize it by setting up a business area improvement fund. business and make the down- town area a place for peo- ple, said Ted Silverberg, of Project- Saving Small Busi- ness. Both Mr. Silverberg and Don Garrett of the same project emphasized in their presentation to the mer- chants that the core area must be promoted as an elongated shopping plaza This would give the core its own identity as a shop- ping area attractive to browsers and buyers. Several businessmen who attended the meeting Sept. 8 supported the downtown improvement idea in princi- ple but were reluctant to contribute money them- selves. Howard Underwood of, Waterloo Music on He gina St questioned the hene- fits his company would receive from an improved corearea “I support the concept hut I can't see what bene- fit it would he to us Only In percent of our building IS used for retail spade If we were assessed for the Waterloo, Ontario whole building I would be against the plan." he said. Larry Marsland. represent- ing Maryland Centre, said many of his tenants believe core improvement would not benefit them since they already pay for office space in a beautified building. “I personally certainly concur with seeing down- town Waterloo beautiful but I must present the case of my tenants who feel they wouldn't benefit directly," he said. Merchants from King St. who attended the meeting were enthusiastic about the proposal. “The whole idea's ter- rific.“ said Wib Biersch- hach of Herb Forrester's Men's Wear, Other favor- able comments were made try John Sims of the Royal Bank. George Harper of Natural Audio. Robert Hit- ton of Hilton-Foster As- somates. and Bruce Burns of Schendel Stationery Mayor Herb Epp also ex- pressed the city's willing- ness to assist the merchants in setting up a business im- provement fund. City plan- ning director, Paul Diet- rich, offered to work with the merchants to plan - de- sign improvements for the core. Ted Silverberg suggested one way to eliminate the criticism of Regina St. and Marsland Centre business- men would be to initially restrict the business im- provement area to King St. "It's better to start small and expand. Do a good job and everyone else will ask to join the program," he said. Although the organizers of the meeting were disap- pointed by the small tum- out of businessmen they pledged to continue ellielt- ing support for the idea from merchants. An interim organizing committee composed of John Sims, Larry Mar.; land. Doug Ratchford. Bruce Bums. Robert Hilton and an unnamed representative of Waterloo Square was set up to consider the boun- 10 Cents (Commued on page 2)