Council has officially endorsed the new downtown master plan, which includes high-level recommendations for more public space, public washrooms, and streets that favour pedestrians over cars.
At their regular meeting on Feb. 10, council gave their final endorsement to the plan with no discussion, which was first presented to the public this past summer and received initial approval in January.
Mayor Yvonne Hamlin asked on Monday to have staff report back annually on their progress in getting the plan implemented, which council supported.
“This plan has to evolve as our community grows. It will change,” she said. “It’s an awesome plan.”
The downtown master plan guides the evolution of Collingwood’s downtown through 2051. The town and the Downtown Collingwood Business Improvement Area (BIA) partnered for the work on the draft plan and both contributed to the cost of consultant Fotenn Planning + Design.
Some of the suggestions in the draft plan include hiring a downtown co-ordinator to oversee implementation of a finalized downtown master plan, continue to raise awareness around mental health and homelessness in the downtown, continue to support the evolution of the downtown from a car-centric to a people-first destination, create a public anchor at the end of Hurontario Street and provide opportunities for downtown visitors to physically interact with Georgian Bay at the terminus of Hurontario Street.
Also included is a suggestion to enhance the Loblaws frontage on Hurontario Street, create an open, public space in close proximity to town hall and formalize 84 Hurontario St. as a public space, for the town to investigate the current building condition of the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena, start a pilot project to focus on laneway activation, and provide pedestrian-priority paving on Hurontario Street between Second and Third streets.
In terms of expanding programs the town already has, the consultant is recommending expanding the town’s Rapid ARU program to support residential upgrades and conversions in downtown buildings, develop year-round programming for the downtown, and explore partnerships to adaptively reuse the Federal Building, and provide increased transit focusing on the Blue Mountain link, and Wasaga Beach (time and frequency). Providing year-round all-day public washrooms is also being suggested.
In order to increase the attractiveness of the downtown to pedestrians to help curb car use, the consultant is suggesting creating a series of downtown pocket parks, formalize Creative Simcoe Street as an arts district, update the town’s downtown garden maintenance plan and create updated wayfinding signage focused on the downtown and waterfront.
Now that the plan has been endorsed, staff will prepare a work plan with immediate, short and long-term actions that can be taken on the plan, which will be subject to annual budget approval and staff resources.
The workplan will also come before council for approval at a later date.