Effective January 1, 2015, Chinatown and Little Italy will be distinct business zones.

At a special sitting of City Council on October 28, a bylaw was passed to remove Little Italy from the Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) that previously covered both areas.

Chinatown will continue to be a BRZ unto itself, which will be known as the Chinatown and Area Business Revitalization Zone.

Little Italy will not be covered by a BRZ, but will still be eligible for the facade improvement program and development incentive program that was offered while it was covered by the BRZ.

This change affects 240 businesses. 219 of them will remain in the BRZ and 21 of them will be removed from it.

The Chinatown and Little Italy Area Business Association held an open house on July 3, 2014 to notify all of the businesses in the BRZ of the proposed policy amendment. Business owners and managers received information about the meeting either in person through visits by Executive Director Ratan Lawrence, or by mail if a meeting could not be arranged.

The meeting invitation included a letter describing the amendment process and two maps: one map of the existing BRZ and one map of the proposed boundaries of the BRZ after the boundary amendment.

All of the feedback gathered from the meetings and the open house, and even through regrets received by those not able to attend the open house, was positive with regards to pursuing the boundary amendment.

The BRZ was formerly known as the Chinatown Little Italy Business Revitalization Zone.