Businesses in Chemainus will now be part of a business improvement area.
North Cowichan council adopted a bylaw to set up the area at its May 7 meeting.
Municipal CAO Dave Devana explained that it's a move to boost the revitalization of the Chemainus core by collecting a fee from enterprises there.
"This is the businesses advocating on their own to tax themselves. They brought it forward. Then we [North Cowichan] will collect that money and give it to them."
A counter petition process asked businesses if they approved of the promotion scheme and only 55 [37 per cent) of the 148 property owners were against it.
They represented 11.5 per cent of the value of the parcels.
These results meant that there was nothing to stop the municipality from going ahead with the bylaw requested by the business community.