While South Dundas council was unable to discuss the latest iteration of the municipality’s plan for the village plazas in Morrisburg and Iroquois due to a lack of quorum, residents and business owners have a better idea of what is being proposed — and it is not good.
Municipal infrastructure at the two plazas has been a long-standing issue for this and previous councils. South Dundas was burdened with Seaway-era infrastructure that was part of the massive construction/relocation project in the 1950s. Now, the municipality wants to pass that burden on to business owners in the two plazas. With Iroquois nearly complete and Morrisburg slated for renovation this year, council must decide who pays in the future.
What would have been discussed at the February 18 meeting is administration’s plan to saddle additional levies on plaza property owners that range from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars. Those levies are based on the number of parking spaces allotted to each business, and a square-footage-based cost. The few corporately owned chains may be easily able to absorb these costs as just another cost of doing business, but most plaza businesses are independently owned and for them, this is a large expense to deal with.
One problem with these discussions is that not only is the feedback from business owners being largely ignored, but so few people are involved in making the final decisions. Only three out of five members of council can speak or vote; two have declared a conflict of interest.
Past editorials have highlighted the historic issue with the plazas, the unwritten but acknowledged deal of municipal ownership for certain areas in these plazas, and the benefit of having this municipal land available for other uses besides just parking — such as events. This council stands at the point of throwing out what has been the established norm for decades in order to do what — to prove a point of perceived equity for taxpayers? Let’s go down that road.
There are many businesses and service groups that operate businesses or business-like ventures on municipal property. If high surcharges for municipal infrastructure are going to be the new norm in the plazas, what about groups and businesses that operate in our parks, our arena, our community halls, and other facilities? If everyone gets a levy, why are there commercial taxes at all?
This council and administration need to remember that the municipally-owned spaces in the plaza are for everyone and the businesses there are as much a convenience for the citizens of South Dundas as they are a source of tax dollars for council. Changing a historic norm and hitting businesses for unreasonable fees will have consequences that council and administration will not want — closed businesses.
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