Brooks downtown BRZ tells council there is no revitalization plan — both sides agree to build one

Members of the Downtown Brooks Business Revitalization Zone told city council Monday there is no current plan for revitalizing the downtown core, and council agreed — promising a collaborative process to build one from the ground up.

The delegation, which included at least five BRZ members, came to the Oct. 26 regular council meeting with a list of written questions asking whether the city had a long-term strategic or economic development plan for the downtown area. The presiding chair — identified in the transcript as the mayor — said no road work or similar infrastructure projects are in the pipeline, and deferred to the chief administrative officer for confirmation.

"I don't believe there's anything current in terms of a development plan for the area," CAO Derricott said during Monday's council meeting.

One BRZ member said the group's most recent written plan dated to 1992, and that cost had made it prohibitive to act on at the time. She said the BRZ had recently obtained a contact list from the city — something FOIP rules had blocked for roughly five or six years — and said the group now planned to survey both member businesses and the general public on their vision for the downtown.

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CAO Derricott told council administration would bring the matter to an upcoming committee meeting with a proposal for how the city sees itself participating.

"I met with the BRZ and they've got work to do inside their membership. City has work to do in terms of development, and then there's a big overlap on what we can do together to try and make some things happen," CAO Derricott said. "We certainly have some interest administratively on creating a framework of visibility and certainty so that the folks who are working in that space, the BRZ or businesses in general, can see what the concepts and plans are and make decisions in a space that they understand and see the lay of the land."

Several councillors indicated they wanted the direction to come from downtown businesses rather than from the city. Coun. Regner said during Monday's meeting that a previous plan the BRZ had presented contained concrete ideas — including one-way travel, angled parking and pedestrian-friendly summer programming — and said the time for discussion alone had passed.

"I think we are in a place to sit down really and do something about it. Like, the talking time is done," Coun. Regner said, suggesting a joint committee drawn from the BRZ, administration and council.

Coun. Johnson pushed back on the idea of a top-down approach. "I thought this was supposed to be a collaborative — it wasn't supposed to be our vision. It was supposed to be a vision with the local downtown businesses and that you guys were going to bring us a vision," Coun. Johnson said. "I think I would rather hear much from you guys on where you guys want to see it in 5, 10 years."

One councillor who said he owns property downtown told the BRZ he had never been contacted for input, and asked whether the organization planned to reach out to building owners as well as tenants. A BRZ member said building owners should be part of any survey process.

The mayor said the BRZ should gather survey results from its members and then invite council to a BRZ meeting to begin working from a common starting point. Council voted to receive the BRZ's presentation as information.

Administration is expected to bring a proposal on the city's role in a downtown framework to an upcoming council committee meeting; no date has been set.