Council to Discuss Proposed Queen Street BIA Levy Tonight

Twelve downtown business owners have written letters to Niagara Falls City Council against the levy the Queen Street BIA is proposing for next year.

Cheryl Vanditelli with the Queen Bean Cafe is one of them. She had closed her business when the pandemic first hit on March 17th and reopened with high hopes on August 1st. But her cafe continued to struggle because lots of her customers were working from home. She says the Canada - U.S. border closure has also affected tourism in the downtown core.

Vanditelli says there was one day where her business only made $9 profit, which left her no choice but to close again in late September. She says it's cheaper for her to close her business right now than to keep it running, and she's hoping to reopen in March 2021.

The Queen Street BIA is proposing a budget of $400,248 and a levy of $390,248 for 2021. Downtown business owners are upset about the proposed levy because it's a 86 percent increase when compared to 2020. When asked about the proposed levy last week, the BIA issued a statement saying that some business owners may only experience a $20 to $30 per month increase and that it's unlikely that a vast majority of the membership would see the 86 percent increase.

The BIA approved the levy during its virtual Annual General Meeting on November 5th.

Vanditelli tried to participate in the meeting over Microsoft Teams, but she says there were technical issues right from the start. She says there were problems with the chat and some people couldn't call into the meeting. Vanditelli says this was very frustrating, because she has had no issues participating in other virtual meetings during the pandemic. She used a Zoom meeting conducted by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce as an example.

Several Queen Street business owners have complained about how BIA conducted their virtual meeting.

When asked about this last week the BIA released the following statement;

"This year has been new for all of us, meetings that were once held in person are now virtual and we understand that the complications and confusion that come with these new times. That being said, everyone who RSVP’d to the meeting had full access to the AGM and were able to communicate their thoughts throughout. We were made aware that one member was unable to get in, so we paused the meeting and offered them to phone in via cell phone, this offer was declined."

Council will discuss the matter during tonight's meeting.

We reached out to Mayor Jim Diodati's office for comment Monday morning and will update this story if he gets back to us with a comment.