Businessmen and women in the Leaside Business Park are proposing a large Business Improvement Area which would include small shops on Eglinton east of Sutherland Drive to industries such as Del Equipment truck fabrication on Laird Dr., to the East York Town Centre in Thorncliffe Park. The BIA, as proposed, would also include the SmartCentre and all its tenants like Winners as well as the unbuilt Costco. A meeting has been held and pending matters were identified as follows: final boundaries, proposed budget, agreement of the many merchants and businesses in the proposed space and the need to spread the word. Mail from organizer Ian Morton to more than three dozen businesses and individuals speaks of the BIA as a “seat at the table” with the City on issues such as infrastructure investment, research studies, beautification, safety/security and marketing the area “as an excellent place” to do business.
ZONING TO BE RATIONALIZED?
For many, the size and sheer spread of this concept will be alien to known BIAs. They normally bring together merchants on a single street or adjoining streets. But as Morton noted, there are two or three other such giant BIAs in operation. The proposal may well raise the matter of consistent zoning which on the surface does not exist within the proposed area. That and the status of businesses now operating outside the industrial status of the land east of Laird may now be rationalized. A second meeting is set for Wednesday, September 27, with other details to come.
