Mission’s mayor and president of the local chamber of commerce each gave a rundown of the past year’s activities, highlighting the two groups’ efforts to improve the community, at last Thursday’s annual Christmas luncheon.
Chamber president Elyssa Lockhart commented on the organization’s policy initiatives that are moving forward such as the Fraser Valley Inter-Municipal Licensing pilot that begins in January.
“This potentially saves many in [the construction sector] $2,500 in unnecessary red tape,” she said.
Lockhart also spoke of the unexpected overwhelming success of the pilot Pay It Forward…Shop Local program. More than 48,000 receipts were collected equating to a donation of $4,862 to the Mission Christmas Bureau.
“None of us expected the community to be so supportive of this grass-roots program. The big message here is Mission does shop local.”
Mayor Ted Adlem spoke about the district’s four key areas of focus: financial sustainability, economic development, infrastructure, and municipal operations and partnerships. He then went through a checklist of work that council and district staff had done in 2012.
“For the first time in memory, new construction tax revenue from commercial development in the District of Mission is now outpacing that of residential development,” noted Adlem. “Processing times for re-zoning applications have gone from 79 days to 32, on average … subdivisions applications from 76 days to 48, on average.”
Adlem mentioned the pending downtown revitalization plan and initiatives that would provide flexibility for business to build and expand on the waterfront flood plain.
