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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDowntown Advisory 2010-05-13 DOWNTOWN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES May 13, 2010 City of Kitchener The Downtown Advisory Committee met this date, chaired by Glenn Scheels; with the following members in attendance: Councillor John Smola, Alan Doherty, Jamie Yantzi, Mark Garner, Bill Pegg, Peter Hammond Staff in attendance: Cory Bluhm, Debbie Lowes, Sandy Curzon, Heather Holbrook, Sarah Longstaff, Kim Feere Discussion Items Minutes & Agenda Approval of Minutes Approved: On motion by Jamie Yantzi, seconded by Alan Doherty, the minutes of April 8, 2010 were approved. Advisory Committee Updates The following update on the Economic Development Advisory Committee: ? Follow up discussion took place on the Arts & Culture joint discussions The following Safe & Healthy Advisory Committee update was provided: ? C. Bluhm attended and discussed negative perception issues that SHAC had concerns over The following Arts & Culture Advisory Committee update was provided: ? Identified within the community there is a missing link for new artists coming into the region about how to find the resources ? 300 to 400 self identified immigrant artists in the area and there is no method at the moment on how to get their art out in the community or how they can get assistance for that ? ACAC runs on a 2 year term and there is a report given to the community on the culture plan 2 – this report timing is going to be discussed New Business 2.1 King Street East Mixed Use Corridor Zone Change Heather Holbrook provided the committee with a presentation and update on the King Street East Mixed Use Corridor Zone Change. She advised that this corridor has huge potential for intensification. There are 7 mixed use corridors across the city and every corridor is to have a full mix of use – residential, commercial etc. This one will house 2 rapid transit stops, it is the gateway to the downtown and to the entrance to the city. This zone change will allow more density, in a more walkable manner. She advised there was an open house held for the public, which was not heavily attended; however, the feedback they have been receiving through phone calls and counter inquires have been positive with most people wanting to take advantage of potential opportunities. She advised that there have been concerns raised from existing business owners that the zone change will have an impact on their operations and she advised that they will not be affected as long as they are an existing business when the zoning changes. The committee provided the following feedback: If any of the land is currently contaminated, who is responsible for the clean-up? ? We need to address that in the new zoning and the Region has identified the sites that are contaminated. Will there be any coordination on the south side? ? Design brief has been approved by council in 2005 and we use that, to guide the coordination of development Cory Bluhm advised that this corridor can handle a lot of density and a lot of large buildings, is there a problem with competitiveness, if there is too much density spread too far apart? There was discussion regarding the retail attraction for this area and what type of retail might be attracted. The principle use will likely be housing What about the landlords, do you feel they will change their buildings as well? ? The owners we have spoken too so far have identified that this is a good thing since they look to the potential redevelopment in the future. These corridors are better positioned to accommodate multiple uses. Try to avoid the bowling alley look as the entrance into the city, if transit is going to be efficient and we have people living in this area we may get more interest into the core There are a number of possibilities within this area – including the Mill-Courtland area. This is a blank slate that we can do many things with. It is important to make sure there is character in the new development. Are you limiting the amount of retail space? ? Yes to 10,000sq.ft. Wouldn’t want to rule out the idea of a large grocery retail in the area since we are anticipating a number of new residential units. Would movie theatres be aloud in these areas? ? It is meant to be non car focused; retail right at the street, office or residential on top, and limited parking. 2.2 Downtown Land Disposition – Public Consultation Cory Bluhm advised that the city owns 14 lots downtown most are parking lots and it has been identified that these are not the best use of the land. The supply of developable lands is shrinking Downtown. We anticipate increased demand for City-owned land.. This is a starting point on what to do with these parcels of land. There are four key questions we will be looking for input on. - What are the key developments for these lands - What extent should we implement our objectives - For each of these properties what is the more strategic for each - How do we go about the develop of them Council has advised that more public consultation needs to be done. Today’s question is how do you see staff best engaging the community on this discussion – what methods, discussion with who etc. ? Put something forward and see how they react to it – if they don’t like it they will let you know. It could help get the conversation going. ? Align what you want to achieve with what you need to do to get you there – if you need to get people there then it needs to be tied into what you want Do you need to educate people before you ask for their opinion? ? We have a good amount of experience over the last 5 years with some major projects and this is a little different in the sense that it is looking high level at the remaining inventory – we do have process experience (Centre Block, The Market etc) we can learn from. We don’t need to have every site mapped out – it is not feasible to have all sites on the market at the same time – it will be a long process. We need to have a policy question and a process question. What do we want this to look like and how are we going to manage it. It is not a cookie cutter process The Committee suggested the following consultation methods for consideration: ? Internet ? Traditional way of public consultation ? Ads in the newspaper ? Emails to various mailing lists ? Consult with the owners in the adjacent parcels ? BIA stakeholders ? Neighbourhood association ? Development industry ? Society of architects ? Events in the core ? Give an ideal idea of what is in place and could be generated ? Whatever we do we should not settle since it lasts for a long time – have higher quality things Do we engage industry leaders and have them carry the message or should the city take the lead on this? This is a City initiative and the City should lead it ? There are several people, academics etc that could carry this message for us – people that do these sorts of things all the time 2.3 Arts Culture Discussion Cory Bluhm advised that Silvia DiDonato is leading this discussion and she is now facilitating a more detailed discussion with each committee and will be here at a future DAC meeting with the more in depth discussion. 2.4 Business Attraction Strategy Update Michael Berne in partnership with the city and the BIA is working on the retail attraction strategy. We are doing a presentation to stakeholders at the Delta on Wednesday and encourage you come to out and participate. This will also include a presentation on what the next steps look like and how we implement this over the next few years. 2.5 IDA White Paper on a National Strategy of Canada’s Downtown This worldwide organization does many things – Canadian subgroup of international group has put together a paper they are putting forward to the feds on the importance of downtown – wanting a minister of downtowns, strategy on housing, etc. for the downtowns and looking for funding to support and encourage the province to do the same. There will be some joint work with Ontario BIAs and Toronto BIAs to push this through. 2.6 Downtown Live – Find Us Downtown (Summer Street Entertainment) This summer the BIA, local arts group, multicultural and the city have come together and a local arts group received funding to do entertainment in the core. Starting May 27 there will be live performance of some kind every Thursday and Friday at lunch and at 5. This is not for a big production it is on the street entertainment. It will have a busker type feel to it and promotional material should be out soon. This will help drive vitality and help expose people to different things. 2000 flyers are going out and there will be reminders in the downtown every Thursday and Friday to remind people. Website will be updated. 2.3 Project Updates The committee was provided with a handout of the April project updates. On motion, the meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m.