Downtown Vernon Association Mission Statement - "To promote Downtown to the region as a unique and dynamic destination for entertainment, goods and services".

For over one hundred years downtown Vernon has been the very heart of our City — "everybody's neighbourhood". As the city has grown and prospered, the downtown area has always provided a social and business focus in the community. Today as Vernon continues to grow, many people are striving to maintain that focus.

Attractive, well-planned, enthusiastic, efficient downtown cores don't just happen. Transforming several square blocks of office buildings, public areas, restaurants and retail space into a living, breathing and exciting community takes the energy and creativity of people working through a dynamic and focused organization. In Vernon a Business Improvement Area (BIA) formalized under the title "Downtown Vernon Association" is such an organization, and it is known as one of the most active and multi-dimensional of its kind in the province.

In 1998, a Downtown Concept Plan was developed and adopted by the City of Vernon. This plan is in keeping with the Official Community Plan but concentrates on the downtown. Since that time the Downtown Vernon Association has been working with the City of Vernon to revitalize the downtown core.

The Downtown Concept Plan recognized that the community is proud of Vernon's history and wanted their heritage kept alive. Many programs have since been put into place to develop Vernon's heritage. These include a heritage-plaquing program where a number of downtown's historical buildings now grace a plaque describing their historical significance. A heritage self-guided walking tour has been developed. The Downtown Vernon Association has an innovative outdoor historical mural program with fourteen murals painted on what were previously blank downtown walls. These murals depict Vernon's history through the use of actual historic photographs from the Greater Vernon Archives. The Heritage Society of British Columbia recognized the murals when the Downtown Vernon Association was awarded the "Award of Honour" for this project.

This 'Welcome to Downtown Vernon' site has been brought to you to give you a glimpse of what is planned for Vernon 2000+ along with sharing a little of Vernon's history through a time line. In the 'Today & Tomorrow' section you will find a current view of Vernon on the left with a proposed change to the streetscape environment and building façade changes on the right. This site will enable you to see downtown Vernon as it is today and downtown Vernon as it will look once the revitalization project is underway. The revitalization project will start in the spring of 2001 and continue over the next five years until all of Main Street Vernon is completed. The revitalization project will keep the heritage theme with heritage lighting, benches, ash urns, garbage receptacles, bicycle racks, wider sidewalks, much more landscaping and streetscape environment, including low-level shrubs, trees for shade, and main street will move from four lanes to two lanes of traffic.

We invite you to come and visit Vernon and see the changes as they happen.