The Water Street Rehabilitation Project is gearing up for phase 3 – and some downtown business owners are speaking out on what they think can be done better.

The City of St. John’s held a debrief on phase 2 of the project Monday and business owners raised issues around signage, parking and ways to mitigate the financial impact.

Some of the challenges faced during the project. @VOCMNEWS #nltraffic pic.twitter.com/NERRi5F8rP

— Ben Murphy VOCM (@BenMurphyVOCM) July 29, 2019

Peg Norman is the owner and operator of the Travel Bug and Bee’s Knees. She knows the city cannot provide tax breaks, but there is something that can be done to ease the burden on business owners.

Norman says one way would be offering a grant based on lost revenue that would be easy enough to show with financial records from year-to-year.

She says doing business in the downtown is different than anywhere else in the city. Norman believes that Water Street is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the province, and that it isn’t fully appreciated by many.

She says we need more acknowledgement of how important, economically, the downtown is – and that it needs to be treated with more respect.

Norman says she is dreading next April when her businesses will be impacted by the project.

Improvements Can Be Made, says Lane

Meanwhile, a St. John’s councillor says while there were many improvements – they know they can do better when it comes to the Water Street Rehabilitation Project.

Dave Lane says the issue of construction crews filling most available parking spaces is one that they will certainly deal with. He notes they did make improvements by having workers on the street to help navigate vehicles, but also a person dedicated to helping pedestrians.

He says they will also do more to increase signage, and to attract people to the downtown from other areas.

In terms of some financial relief, Lane says it’s something they’re looking at – but it’s a difficult problem to solve.

He says determining how much you would give a business owner is a complex thing. They also have regulations that they have to follow as they can’t modify their tax code to give special allowances.

Therefore, they need to look at another option to offset costs.