The City is looking ahead to working with businesses and residents to build the downtown core, after the Downtown Lloydminster Business Improvement District (BID) Board of Directors dissolved in March.
On Monday, Council approved BID’s decision to dissolve their Board of Directors and create a new committee under the City arm that will see downtown Lloydminster thrive. Councillor Jonathan Torresan says that the Downtown Area Revitalization Plan (DARP) is currently being looked at and will help reshape the downtown.
“The idea is making a succinct plan that says this is what we want our downtown to look like, this is the strategies we want to go with moving forward and then actually taking steps to implement those in the future and keeping them in mind when we’re doing different projects.”
The City will work with the previous Board of Directors to create a smooth transition into a new committee that will be comprised of downtown business owners, tax payers and residents who use the downtown regularly. Torresan says that the BID was feeling some restrictions in terms of completing any major projects.
“Hopefully by removing some of those administrative burdens to running the BID we can actually get to a point where there maybe some real projects done in the future.”
The City is currently accepting tenders for consultants to come in and create a DARP proposal.