The Chilliwack
Progress Friday
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The Battle Back
Dog’s Day
Service
The final in a two-part series on the real impact of concussion .
Public steps forward for Biggy.
‘Little things’ add up to Governor General’s award.
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Chilliwack stays on the competitive edge: study Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Less red tape, taxes and fees in Chilliwack make it stand out on the provincial landscape for commercial development. Chilliwack was just cited for some of the lowest fees and tax rates, and a very quick turnaround process for permits, in the 2014 municipal report card issued by Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP). “It’s huge,” said Brian Coombes, president of Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation, about the stellar results from the Vancouver chapter of NAIOP. “This is something City of Chilliwack has worked extremely hard for.” It’s the second time this month Chilliwack has been recognized for affordable land and development costs, and its tax structure. It was also noted in the Colliers 2014 Lower Mainland study, Rising Cost of Industrial Occupier Facilities. “Chilliwack is the number one, lowest-cost option (and Abbotsford is a close second) in the Lower Mainland to acquire land, design and build the benchmark facility, at almost $5.2 million,” according to the Colliers study. “While Chilliwack and Abbotsford are in the Fraser Valley Regional District and officially outside the Metro Vancouver region, this shows how the two cities offer compelling value in terms of land and development costs and the municipality with the most competitive property tax structure in the Lower Mainland: Chilliwack. In the City of Vancouver it would be just over $7.6 million to build the same facility, “representing a whopping premium of 46 per cent, not to mention annual property taxes that are 70 per cent higher than those in Chilliwack.” So it’s no accident that these accolades are rolling in for Chilliwack, Coombes offered, and said kudos in the NAIOP report card came in last year as well. It’s noteworthy that the new numContinued: BUSINESS/ p6
Blaine ‘Captain America’ Maahs, 9, paints a pumpkin during the Pumpkin Painting Halloween Costume Party at Little Mountain Greenhouses on Wednesday afternoon. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Mayoralty candidates take on crime and safety Jennifer Feinberg The Progress When it comes to the crime rate of a community, sometimes perceptions can be a bit at odds with the evidence. Take Chilliwack’s crime rate. Would most people think the crime in Chilliwack went up or down overall, August 2013 to 2014? The overall crime rate is in fact trending downward, with property crime down three per cent over last year, according to RCMP stats.
The Chilliwack Progress asked all three mayoralty candidates what specifically they would do as mayor to make citizens feels safer in their community. (Full responses can be found under the Election 2014 tab of www. theprogress.com) Mayoralty candidate Raymond Cauchi replied that he’d begin by encouraging people to “engage” with their neighbours. “I would promote neighbour gatherings and attend. I would begin a dialogue about how knowing who your neighbours
are and getting to know them is a key part of feeling safe,” he said. His idea is “diverting funds” to increase presence and response time of first responders in “targeted” neighbourhoods. “Every neighbour-hood has unique e needs and I would nott want to direct resourc-es to where they are e not needed,” said Cauchi. uchi Incumbent Sharon Gaetz stated in her answer that citizens “deserve” to feel safe.
Through “the hard work of the Public Safety Advisory Committee,” a city committee, they’ve been able to make “great strides” in crime reduction in Chilliwack, she noted. An RCMP official briefed city council earlier this year, noting earl that auto theft was down 36 per cent. But theft from vehicles is going up. They’ve brought in boards to flash timely lleader d b crime-prevention messages to
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