The 2013 budgets for Ottawa’s business improvement areas have been approved, but not all business owners in the city are happy with the spending being proposed in their areas.
One area in which there is concern is Somerset Village, the short stretch of Somerset Street between Bank and O’Connor streets.
The budgets, which are laid out by the directors of the city’s individual BIAs, vary greatly in terms of the amounts being set aside for development and maintenance.
For example, the city’s more well-known BIAs such as Bank, Preston and Sparks streets are set to see spending of about, $750,000, $465,000 and $500,000 respectively in the coming year, while only $10,300 has been allotted to Somerset Village for maintenance.
Mayor Jim Watson says the disparity is due to geography.
He says that since Somerset Village occupies a much smaller area than larger BIAs, it naturally receives less money for development because fewer businesses operate there.
This means less money is available from annual levies drawn from establishments inside Somerset Village than in places with many businesses like Preston Street.
However, despite the financial constraints, Watson says he sees lots of possibilities for the area.
“I think it’s a great area, has lots of potential and is very vibrant,” he says.
But business owners in Somerset Village are not so optimistic about the future.
Gary Stacey general manager of Burgers on Main, a newer restaurant in the Village, says he’s disappointed with maintenance since it was revamped six years ago.
“The city’s whole attention to Somerset Street has become lost,” he says. “We’re like a forgotten part of town.”
He says the Village’s interlocking brick sidewalks, globe-style street lamps and benches – aspects that should increase the area's appeal – have been neglected and damaged the Village’s reputation.
“The benches, they’re all in disrepair… The interlocking sidewalks have started to crack and fray. All it attracts is bums,” Stacey says.
Another eyesore he points to is the abandoned 19th-century heritage building, Somerset House, on the southeast corner of Somerset and Bank streets.
He says the run-down building has sat empty for more than half a decade serving as a blemish on the area's image.
Linda Anderson, the chief of bylaw and regulatory services for the city, says efforts have been made to improve the look of the building that has been unused and unfinished since a wall collapsed during a construction project in 2007.
“Unpermitted postering on the hoarding around Somerset House has been removed,” she says. “The owner has committed to painting the hoarding once the weather improves.”
Stacey added that he would like the city to step up and help in the effort to rejuvenate the Village – a task that a number of the business owners on the street have already started to take on in cooperation with one another.
“In the summertime… if you look down the street, it’s like an old street in Montreal, you’ve got that café look that makes an attraction,” Stacey says “But that’s us who are doing that, the city’s not even involved.”
While the businesses in Somerset Village are taking it upon themselves to revive the street’s image for now,
Mayor Watson syas he thinks more attention will get paid to Centretown’s “forgotten” BIA in the near future if city council’s plan to increase the downtown population goes as planned.
“We’re trying to allow people to live in the downtown,” he says. “So that we don’t just come downtown to work, but we come downtown to live and to play.”