North Bay City Council has acknowledged that West Ferris needs some incentives for business to grow in the city’s south end but the length of time to effect change has led to dismay by some municipal politicians.
Councillors are stepping up to try to bring business incentives offered to other areas of the city to struggling West Ferris. It was Councillor Derek Shogren who raised the possibility of a West Ferris plan at the regular meeting of Council two weeks ago, and he again expressed a desire to find the money to help what he calls “an important part of the city.”
In a related story, last week MyNorthBayNow.com broke the story about the final bank branch in West Ferris planning to close up shop.
The discussion at a committee-level meeting to top up a fund created to help downtown businesses renovate their storefronts evolved into exploratory questions directed to City Planner Beverley Hillier.
Councillors asked whether the same type of incentive-based funding model could be applied to West Ferris. Several seemed eager to get the ball rolling at last night’s meeting but Hillier cautioned that rewriting the Community Improvement Plans would take months, perhaps as many as nine months.
Part of the review would include going through the proper legal steps necessary to include a West Ferris version of the current Downtown Community Improvement Plan.
