New Westminster business areas could be seeing stars this Christmas.
The Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Association and the Uptown Business Association have asked the city to help cover the costs of renting and installing holiday lighting in their commercial areas this Christmas. Last year, the city and the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Association (BIA) shared the cost of installing a 38-foot tree and lights on poles in the area. The Uptown Business Association paid for shooting star lighting in Uptown and a tree on top of Blenz for the 2013 holiday season.
For 2013, the BIA has requested the city share the cost of renting and installing a tree in Hyack Square, while the Uptown Business Association asked the city to share the cost of renting and installing shooting star lights on 34 street poles.
Coun. Betty McIntosh suggested the 12th Street and Sapperton commercial areas would also benefit from seasonal lighting. She said the city has spent "millions and millions" to upgrade those business areas in recent years.
To be equitable, McIntosh suggested that the 34 pole wraps proposed for the uptown area could be spread out among the various areas.
"I think they are great," she said about the shooting stars. "They gave some real animation to the street."
Coun. Jaimie McEvoy said the cost of the shooting star lighting isn't very high, so he'd prefer that the city help fund additional lights rather than disperse 34 lights among the various commercial areas.
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr said council's earlier resolution to consider seasonal lighting in the city's commercial areas gave business groups the impression a plan was in the works, so they didn't realize they had to submit specific requests to the city.
Council referred the matter back to staff, who will talk to the other businesses associations and report back to council.
