Abbotsford Downtown Business Association Executive Director Tina Stewart is circulating an email urging residents to sign the ADBA’s petition against the proposal by Abbotsford Community Services and BC Housing to build a low barrier Supportive Housing Project.
Abbotsford Council will be holding a public hearing on the proposal Monday February 3.
Oppose Rezoning for a Low Barrier Transition Home in Historic Downtown Abbotsford
Petition by
Abbotsford Downtown Business Association
oppose:1. Rezoning P.I.D.’s 004-280-636 & 006-561-721 and 2408 Montvue Avenue
2. The constructions of a 20 man facility in the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association area.Abbotsford Community Services has been a valuable member of the ADBA family from day one. ADBA members have been passionate supporters of Community Services, both financially and by volunteering.
City wide problems require city wide solutions.
15 major Social Service Agencies impacting the ADBA are clustered in or within 500m of the ADBA borders.Where are the clusters of Community Services locations along the Sumas Way commercial corridor? Where are they on Clearbrook Road or South Fraser Way or Mt. Lehman?
EVERY decision Council makes comes with a cost. If council chooses to permit another significant social program to be located in the ADBA, directly in conflict with the C7 agreement, the cost will be borne first and foremost by the family run businesses and their employees in the ADBA.
City wide problems require city wide solutions.
The ADBA is proud of what we’ve done in our Historic Downtown. We have taken an area with a lot of challenges, an area that was in serious decline, with crime and decaying buildings and we’ve made it something that every resident of Abbotsford can be proud of.
C7 zoning was implemented in partnership between the City and the ADBA in order to encourage investment from developers and businesses. The ADBA members trusted that their investment was protected with the C7 bylaws.
Unlike any other parts of our community, the family run businesses of the ADBA have VOLUNTARILY paid ADDITIONAL levy for over a decade. A tax levy over and above what every other single business in Abbotsford pays, and used that money to improve your Historic Downtown. Tax revenue the City collects from the area has doubled because of the growth and improvements made by the members of the ADBA to the area.
City wide problems require city wide solutions.
We call on City Council to consider the costs, not just to Community Services, but to the ADBA and to the community at large. And we ask you to consider one other very important factor when making your decision on this proposal.Fairness.
We ask Council to acknowledge that the ADBA, with over a dozen Social Services agencies in or near downtown, is already doing more than any other part of our city.
We ask Council to stand up and say that until Sumas Way AND Clearbrook Road AND South Fraser Way AND Mt. Lehman commercial districts have as many Social Service locations as the ADBA currently does, no one has the right to ask the ADBA to bare more of the costs of our shared city wide problems.
We ask council to answer this question in making their decision on this proposal:
Does adding another significant social service in the Historic Downtown provide a city wide solution to a city wide problem?
Because city wide solutions are the only way Abbotsford is ever going to solve city wide problems.
Tina,
Your pleading does not hold water! Let’s put the shoe on the other foot, if you will. Why should an area of approximately 2% of the total area of Abbotsford dictate what is best for the whole of the City, for ALL of the residents?
The ADBA is not only just for “ma & pop” type businesses, there are many other businesses in the downtown area, many who cater to the needs of those “in need”, eg., many different types of social services, be they doctors, lawyers, or counseling. So, because addicted, or homeless people have a need to use these services, are you and or the ADBA about to dictate to the doctors, lawyers and counselors that these people are not welcome in the downtown area and therefore, their businesses are not welcome? It certainly sounds, to me, that this is the message that you are trying to convey.
Please, change is a good thing. Change is healthy. Change is necessary for progress to take place. Please stop trying to make this into a “turf war” and support what is good for ALL of Abbotsford.
Tina Stewart makes reference to 15 social service agencies in
ADBA…the main social service agencies right in ADBA,used by the homeless/addicted include Social Services Canada and the Salvation Army and Food Bank.
These resources have been there for a long time and were located there due to need.
Tina Stewart inquires about social services in other parts of the city.
For starters, there are 11+ recovery houses in the cities core in
residential areas, the majority in the Clearbrook area plus, several unregulated boarding houses, which have several addicted/criminal element residing in these houses,Women’s resource centre in Cedar Park Mall,,one evening per week providing services for street workers, John HowardTransition House on Tims St., Safe House for women of domestic violence (location withheld to protect) warm zone for homeless/addicted/street women near cities centre, recovery related housing for women near Livingstone St., Clearbrook Road housing for women victims of violence and/or prev. addicted, addictions centre @ SFW and Clearbrook Rd, several care homes for mental health/behavioral related care of youth and adults, Cyrus Centre for
youth….
On top of this Drug house tenants spill over into neighborhoods and
businesses in the area in all parts of the cities’ core.
The most important point is the fact the homeless/addicted have been
in the area of the ADBA for @ least 15 years and counting…………
wouldn’t it be better to treat the problem, where it is rather than drag the problem all across the city?