Barrhaven breaks Ottawa's BIA mold
"Right now we're in the middle of compiling our database, which is more complex than it sounds given our geographic make-up, but we have about 225 commercial tax-paying businesses," says Andrea Steenbakkers, Barrhaven BIA executive director. "We're also opening our membership to home-based businesses. The other BIAs in Ottawa don't do this, but again because our BIA isn't just a segment of a street and is a suburban residential-based community, there are about 100-200 home-based businesses operating in Barrhaven right now so it only makes sense." The boundaries of the Barrhaven BIA stretch across a swath of farmlands and residential communities from Fallowfield Road to Jockvale Road and Cedarview Road to Woodroffe Avenue. It received official designation in January of this year and is the first BIA the city to encompass a suburban area. Most BIAs involve a designated street, such as the Bank Street Promenade BIA or Downtown Rideau Street BIA, or a small town with the Carp and Manotick BIAs. There are 11 other BIAs in the city, with another in the works in the St. Joseph Boulevard area of Orléans. The process of establishing the BIA in Barrhaven took two years and involved a number of public meetings and focus groups to determine the group's mandate. Bell-South Nepean Councillor Jan Harder was a strong advocate and she was also a member of the BIA's steering committee. Ms. Steenbakkers says one of the BIA's main objectives is to create another voice at city hall through political advocacy because the area's 70,000 residents and business owners are currently represented by only one city councillor. "Two-way communication with city hall and getting it to back to our members is our biggest priority and we're launching a new website at the beginning of May," she says. "It will be a portal of business information and be a thousand times better than what we have now. We're invested a little bit of our budget into our website because that is essentially our office since we don't have office space and that's how we communicate with our members and the community at large." Marketing of the area is also a priority. The BIA has formed an economic development committee to build on existing businesses in Barrhaven. Ms. Steenbakkers says policing and security are also prominent items on the agenda, along with forming community partnerships with local groups. The BIA will be participating with the local Rotary Club and private citizen's groups during this year's annual Spring Cleaning the Capital program. "We're also going to be taking advantage of the city's new Green Partnership Pilot Program, which has grants available to plant trees and flowers and we'll be applying for some of that funding for our public areas," she says. "This will be a good opportunity for our new BIA to bring nature into our new rapid growth areas." |
(Wed, Apr 26,
2006 by