Downtown Summerside Inc. head quits in frustration

The interim president of Downtown Summerside Inc. has resigned because he says the city isn’t supporting his visions for downtown.

In his resignation letter, Peter Brown said for the last year and a half, he's tried to promote the downtown as the heart of the city.

Brown said Mayor Basil Stewart is more interested in seeing new buildings developed outside downtown, to increase the city's tax base, than to reclaim older buildings in the downtown core.

"The policy and tax incentive in 2010 that was implemented to a large degree has encouraged sprawl basically with very little focus on specific development," Brown told CBC News.

"That is the way to go, to encourage specific development in specific areas of the city. The same that we did in Slemon Park to encourage aerospace, and it worked like a charm."

Brown's letter also cited frustrations with the $2 million "Big Dig" Water Street construction. During the last phase, there was a 200-metre section of road closed to traffic for weeks, affecting businesses in the area.

Brown said the project also ran over schedule by six to eight weeks.

Stewart said council has spent about $6 million in the last few years in redeveloping the downtown.

"Poor Peter, he's very difficult to satisfy. If we paved the streets with gold, I'm sure he'd complain about the glare. I've known Peter for a long time and sometimes the sun doesn't come up early enough in the morning," Stewart told CBC News Wednesday afternoon.