The future of Collingwood’s downtown is bright, assuming the town deals with the parking issue.
On Thursday, the town held two public information sessions on the status of the downtown visioning master plan, which will serve as a vision for the long-term evolution of Collingwood’s downtown area through 2051. The plan, currently in draft form, was presented to the public ahead of council consideration slated for next month.
While attendees seemed mostly positive about the direction consultant Fotenn Planning + Design has taken on its 24 recommendations on how Collingwood’s downtown needs to be improved, there was one glaring aspect not considered in the plan but raised by attendees.
“There seems to be so much going on with all these new ideas ... but it always comes down to parking,” said one attendee, who didn’t provide her name. “What comes first — the parking, or build it first and we’ll deal with parking later? I’m not sure how it all comes together.”
Matt Reid of Fotenn said the consulting firm isn’t a transportation planner.
“We don’t provide a hard stance on parking throughout this study ... but there are a lot of recommendations that will impact parking,” he responded. “The best use of your downtown spaces is not parking, but parking is a reality.”
The town is planning a downtown parking study in 2025 specifically to delve deeper into the parking issue, and Reid said the outcome of that study would impact which recommendations out of the draft downtown master plan are ultimately approved by council.
The town and the Downtown Collingwood Business Improvement Area have partnered for the work on the draft plan.
During public consultation to create them, the consultant heard residents consider the downtown’s assets to be its waterfront location, its historical and cultural significance, architectural heritage, strong local groups/organizations and a strong foundation of town studies and plans.
Some of the challenges expressed include a weak connection between the downtown and waterfront, a lack of a central open space, gaps between points of attraction, housing affordability/availability, challenges finding public washrooms, lack of clear wayfinding for pedestrians and cyclists, and a perception of safety.
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.
Jim Kinnear raised concerns about the recommendations from a feasibility study by Colliers Project Leaders to build a new arts centre in the parking lot at the corner of Pine and Second streets, which, if approved, would significantly impact the downtown.
“My family and I moved to Collingwood 36 years ago, and the hot topic then was, where are we going to put the arts centre?” he said. “Have you looked at the various attempts to build an arts centre here and why they didn’t proceed?”
He raised concern about where the Collingwood Farmers’ Market would go if the arts centre project proceeds on that site.
“It’s a real hub of this town. It would be a terrible shame to lose that,” said Kinnear.
Reid said Fortenn hadn’t looked at the historic work that had been done on an arts centre in Collingwood, but that it wasn’t within the scope of the plan as Colliers was leading that work. Mayor Yvonne Hamlin, who also attended the session, explained the town determined the downtown was the best location for an arts centre to encourage anyone seeing a show to also visit downtown restaurants.
A few attendees spoke with CollingwoodToday following the presentation to share their thoughts.
“This is an outstanding presentation. It’s so forward-thinking. They have a very up-to-date understanding of city planning and what we should be in 2051,” said Jeanette Beck of Safe Streets Collingwood.
“I have a hard time saying there was anything that was bad.”
Sue Ann Rothwell said the plan makes a lot of sense for Collingwood, but she agreed with concerns raised by Kinnear.
“I would really hate to see our farmers’ market move, because it really is a draw. I like to see things that are drawing local people, and they really use that. To move it to the Eddie Bush (arena) ... it’s not the same,” she said.
Rothwell said she liked the idea of the town hiring a downtown co-ordinator.
“They’ve put some good ideas out with some good vision. Now, people need to get engaged and comment on it,” she said.
The suggestions being made by the consultant are all in the draft phase. The consultant will now work to compile all feedback received from Thursday’s session, to be included in the final recommendations.
The recommendations are expected to come to council’s committee of the whole for consideration at its Oct. 7 meeting.
If you missed the sessions but would like to read more about what the consultant is recommending, click here. To provide feedback of your own, visit the town’s Engage page here.
