Step up or step out — that’s the message a downtown Niagara Falls committee has for property owners of vacant buildings.

During last week’s meeting of the advisory committee to council, Gerald Spencer, the city’s senior manager of municipal enforcement services, spoke about bylaw enforcement as it relates to vacant properties.

Spencer informed committee members about how a new “administered monetary penalty system” (AMPS) will make it easier and more effective for the municipality to issue fines outside of courts.

The issue of chronic vacancies and fading facades was brought to the committee by member and longtime downtown businessperson Tony Barranca.

In an interview, Barranca said he walked along Queen Street from Erie Avenue to Victoria Avenue and counted about 27 closed stores, som

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