A group of residents wants to see a six-block section of Ottawa's Bank Street designated as the city's gay village. (Rebecca Zandbergen/CBC)

A non-profit group said Wednesday that it will continue working to turn Bank Street into Ottawa's gay village despite opposition from some in the street's business community.

The group, known as The Village, has raised money to fly a few rainbow flags, a common symbol of gay pride, on Bank Street and has already put in an order for more, said its chairman, Glenn Crawford.

Two big rainbow flags now hang at the entrance of a coffee shop at the corner of Bank and Gilmour streets.

"Whenever I walk by them, I just get a little happy," said Crawford.

Glenn Crawford, who chairs The Village, the group working to establish the gay district, said more rainbow flags will soon be seen flying on Bank Street. (Rebecca Zandbergen/CBC)

"I'm almost paternal — protective of them or something. I just like looking at them and seeing them every day. It's nice."

The flags are being mounted with the permission of business owners along the street as a symbol of what the neighbourhood means to Ottawa's gay, lesbian bisexual, and transgender community, said Crawford.

Last summer, however, the Bank Street Promenade Business Improvement Area (BIA) turned down a request to officially designate the area Ottawa's gay village.

Crawford said the BIA's denial of that request hasn't stopped the village from emerging along a six-block stretch of Bank Street.

"There have been challenges that have come up throughout the process, but that hasn't dampened my own personal … and the community's enthusiasm for the concept," said Crawford.

"We're a government town. It can be a little conservative, a little bit wary of change or rocking the boat."

Where Bank Street meets Somerset Avenue, rainbow trim lines the tops of all the windows at a coffee shop.

Craig Hinman, who often goes to the coffee shop, said it's time the city lends its support to the village.

"The gay community has had to be quiet for way too long," he said.

"I'm very disappointed that they can't just say once and for all, officially, that this is the area that's going to be known as the gay village. What's wrong with that? We have Little Italy, we have Chinatown, why can't we have the gay village?"

The village committee said it has ordered three more big rainbow flags that that will be mounted on businesses along that strip that have agreed to fly them.