HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass Kitchener - 2010-04-08
COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES
April 7, 2010 CITY OF KITCHENER
The Compass Kitchener Committee met on this date, commencing at 4:35 p.m.
Present: Theron Kramer, Kim Knowles, Sarah Marsh, Norm Damaren, Julia Browne, Azam Fouk
Aladeh
Staff: Shelley Adams, Jenn Grein, Susan Weare, Pauline Houston, Dan Chapman, Jeff
Willmer, Rod Regier
Regrets: Corinne Cash, Corey Badcock, Jasminka Klacar, Laura Lee Dam
Theron welcomed all members to the meeting.
1. Update from each GM
Pauline Houston – Community Services Department:
What have you done really well and why?
?
Much strategic development all tied in with the Leisure Facilities Master Plan.
What is not yet completed and why?
?
South District Park Master Plan – have not been able to begin – needed to start with Parks
master plan, and it is in its final stage. South District Park Master Plan encompasses many
services centralized in the south end of Kitchener. Appropriate to delay.
What challenges did you face and why?
?
Improving relationships with school boards and how we can utilize joint uses of facilities.
Questions:
?
Culture Plan II was not specifically identified, many pieces are in the works, however just not
specifically identified, these include the public art policy, artefacts program, arts and culture
cluster development and the artist in residence program.
?
Youth Strategy implementation has been started is staff are working through it. Pauline
provided some examples of recommendations council will be considering later this month, and
team is working towards an implementation plan, which encludes engaging youth in civic life.
?
Arts & Culture Cluster Development is explicitly recognized in the Economic Development
strategy. Vibrant art community is being discussed at advisory committee level right now with
the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee, Economic Development Advisory Committee and
the Downtown Advisory Committee. This was also considered for the federal stimulus funding,
but nothing that could be moved ahead to meet the strict timelines. The city is continuing to
support arts and culture currently taking place in the community, and positioning itself now to
support what ever comes out of the Prosperity Council and looking at partnerships from 2011-
2014.
Jeff Willmer – Development and Technical Services Department:
?
Jeff provided the committee with a hand out summarizing each done well, not completed and
challenges.
What have you done really well and why?
?
Growth Management Strategy & Growth Management Plan – Found good balance of
participation from all parties involved in development, implementation and testing moving
forward
?
Storm Water Management Feasibility Study - this was approved in the fall for implementation
in 2010.
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?
Neighbourhood Design Guidelines and their implementation – neighbourhoods are expected to
be developed according to the guidelines and meet a standard.
?
Doon South Community Plan – this is both a challenge and item done really well – considered
a challenge due to appeals received to the Ontario Municipal Board by development
applications consuming considerable amount of time for quite a few staff, but was very
successful as all the appropriate parties found themselves in a room together and a solution
was found.
?
Listing of properties on Heritage Register – there are many on the inventory, and many also on
the register. Full recognition is given to those in the inventory, and recognition is also now
given to those addresses on register, with a slightly lighter weight.
What is not yet completed and why?
?
Transportation Demand Management Strategy was taken to the Ontario Municipal Board for
appeal and included Parking. As parking could not be fully moved to enterprise, all aspects
were put on hold until the appeal has been resolved. This is scheduled to take place in late
August. This strategy includes a long term parking strategy for the downtown.
?
Transportation Master Plan – The Region is in the final stages of completion, so we are on
hold and will move forward on their recommendations. We have participated with the
development of the regional plan as well, and will focus our plan on their recommendations.
?
New Official Plan – The Region adopted the Official Plan last year, however it is not yet
approved. When this happens, we will move forward.
?
Strategic Plan for the Environment is awaiting the Region’s plan.
?
Environment – 6 components in implementation plan – these will be completed with in the next
6 months or so.
What challenges did you face and why?
?
Huron/Fischer-Hallman – This went to the Ontario Municipal Board, marking the first true
challenge to the Growth Management Strategy and Growth Plan.
?
Accelerated Infrastructure Replacement – full dollars were set aside for this project, however
the cost of replacement increased at same time.
?
Traffic Calming program – response times for emergency vehicles are effected by this.
?
Property owner resistance to Heritage Register listing – individual property owners indicated
they did not want to be included on Heritage Register.
Questions:
?
How are street names chosen, and why is very little diversity reflected in these? Developers
proposes street names for use, the city is only concerned with the suffix (Ave,Rd, etc.)
?
Cycling Master Plan will be brought forth to council in the near future
?
Is there a lack of “championing” environmental issues (e.g., ground water protection) from
within the organization? Not necessarily. Some things are not identified as environmental
issues per se. Simply don’t yet have an internal structure to address these. Ground water
remediation program is in place.
Dan Chapman – Financial Services Department:
What have you done really well and why?
?
Development charges
Involved staff from across the city, which is not new but certainly innovative
o
Identified early the need to align with the growth management plan and its areas of
o
priority
Developed a policy for credit for service agreements; can now pay for costs upfront, but
o
only if project aligns with growth management plan.
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This was a highly consultative approach, which we hoped would eliminate appeals. In
o
this sense, it was successful – there were no appeals from non-residential sectors.
?
Asset accounting and management. For the first time, we have an inventory of all city
resources; 300,000 assets of over $3 billion. Will help inform how we develop our management
plans.
?
Accreditation of water utility. This is one of the first in the province.
What is not yet completed and why?
?
Green purchasing policy. We were hopeful that the policy would be prepared for this year, but
with the advent of stimulus projects, we have been overrun with projects that weren’t
previously on the books and that need to be completed in a very short period of time.
What challenges did you face and why?
?
The mixed blessing of 16 stimulus projects representing over $40 million. Tendered, designed
and constructed in a very short period of time; presented challenges for purchasing and
financial planning
?
Lack of staff support due to retirements and promotions
?
Resource commitment to work management systems and SAP. Has hindered long term
financial plan, however, an RFP has been retained and we are moving ahead. The goal is for
st
the 1 phase completed for the new Council.
Questions
?
Air quality efforts have been very successful, but some are unhappy with how long it is taking
Rod Regier – Chief Administrators Office:
?
Department category is CAO; themes are Development and Downtown. This includes
economic development, downtown, programming, business development and cluster strategy,
Kitchener Market and project administration.
What have you done really well and why?
?
Implementation of city’s cluster strategy has borne significant fruit! E.g., Health Sciences
campuses and opening of McMaster School of Medicine. It is remarkable what has developed
in the small time that was allocated for that project. This happened far faster than most
projects in campus development in the university environment usually do.
?
We are seeing significant investment by Communitech, the federal and provincial
governments, the private sector. For example, millions have been committed to the Digital
Media Project.
?
Life Sciences strategy also successful. The campus has been built and is open; we are now
preparing to move to the next stage discussions are up for what’s next?
?
Significant interest from private sector – companies are meeting on a quarterly basis, having
peer to peer group meetings to discuss development of their industry.
?
Redevelopment of vacant lands is going ahead, but recession has lowered demand for
industrial land (though demand for offices is still high)
?
Strasburg lands will likely be redeveloped when the market strengthens; although there has
been some take up in industrial lands
?
Michelin /BF Goodrich land developer is renovating 200,000 sq ft for Ayazaki (Toyota) and
have option on another parcel. So there are only 2 parcels of land left (which are vacant).
st
?
Manufacturing innovation network – 665 members in the network; just passed 1 year
anniversary, celebrated at CIGI with 130 guests. Have 14 different individuals blogging on the
website; 13,000 people have applied for manufacturing jobs through the website; jobs section
is most active part of site. Are implementing a classified ad and supplier directory – should add
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revenue to the website. Hoping to establish a more practical platform of engagement for
manufacturers
?
Workshop for solar energy industry in Waterloo Region. Project was marketed through the
website. Had 150 people in the room, which was significantly more than expected – very
exciting. Many were connected to the event through a social networking site for manufacturers.
What challenges did you face and why?
?
Downtown is in a process of transformation and redevelopment. We’ve learned some
significant lessons from the first year (are now in second year). People love the changes, but
there was some painful moments last year. This year is feeling painful too, actually. But this
won’t be for as long – development happening on a smaller chunk of the street. Crews have
already followed the template several times and are moving quickly.
?
Kitchener Market. Questions about branding, sustainability and vitality.
Branding – New signage posted throughout the market and accompanying all
o
communications
Sustainability – Will the Market become profitable?
o
Likely not in the short term. We will not break even, something which is important
?
for us to communicate to the public. They need to get used to that idea. It is
conceivable that with more residents and with the increased mixed land use, it
could become profitable. However, this will take 15-25 years to implement.
What we have done is reduce operating subsidy significantly; programming is
?
growing and we are implementing new initiatives. Therefore, the budget should
remain stable.
We need to calibrate expectations around the Market.
?
Also, we are not going to a 6 day/week market because it is not profitable; only
?
the St. Lawrence market in Toronto is that successful – and they are surrounded
by 600,000 people within walking distance.
Vitality – on Saturday, there were at least 13,000 people in the building and it was
o
humming! So, the Market IS making a significant contribution to the vitality of the City.
It is THE place that is associated with local food, which is the #1 priority for the
?
market’s customers who are passionate about the market and love it. This is a
fabulous foundation to build upon. We are hoping to expand that customer base.
We are starting to think about the Market as the centre of food culture in
?
Kitchener – it is the best place to connect local culinary expertise with local food.
Just opened new demonstration kitchen; you can pay $10 and spend an hour
with one of the region’s leading chefs.
?
There’s been some negative press around the contracts that food court vendors had to sign
that allowed the City to move anytime without cause. This seems unreasonable and out of
character if we are trying to encourage them to flourish.
?
All vendors have signed their occupancy permits. The clause does allow the City to move
vendors at our discretion – but we have no intention to do so. This is a standard clause in
corporate leasing; the property owner must have the right to move residents where necessary
(e.g., for the maintenance of facility – mould, leaking roof, structural issue, etc.). Sometimes,
when landlords try to do this, there is resistance from tenants. Therefore, we need to have the
authority to move them in these specific cases.
?
That said, the building is in excellent repair, location of vendors is fine. There is no reason to
move them and we do not anticipate doing so anytime soon. Only one tenant had an issue with
this contract and they have since moved.
Questions
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?
Who is responsible for the downtown development strategies? For example, investment in the
local film/video industry would be especially fruitful.
It is Communitech who is responsible for much of the digital media investments in the
o
downtown
?
What about having wireless available downtown? Wireless is not supported everywhere just
yet. But it is provided sporadically by vendors who choose to do so. We are investigating a
number of options.
?
Why isn’t the area that leads from Frederick to the Market considered part of the downtown?
By the time we got involved in developing the streetscape, that part of the downtown
o
had already been reconstructed (in 2005-2006). Since that section is quite new, we
cannot redevelop it again so soon. Also, that section (Frederick to Market) uses a
different sort of electrical lighting than does the section we are currently redeveloping.
2. Other remarks from committee members
?
How do we grade those items where the constraints come from external factors? There needs
to be a common approach. It was clarified, in previous years, we commented that people were
not as far along as possible, but we included a comment about “Due to external reasons…”
?
There are going to be barriers to everything anyway. So we will have to decide what to focus
on. In particular, if something is not advancing due to a lack of resources, what are our
priorities?
?
Compass Kitchener should be commenting on the Strategic Plan only.
?
There are gaps in some places along with other areas where city has gone above and beyond.
?
We should work on grading what’s within the control of staff – as far as we can tell.
Meeting adjourned at 6:45.
Next meeting:
April 7, 2010
Conestoga Room – Kitchener City Hall
Attendance: Action Log:
S:\General\Compass S:\General\Compass
Kitchener\Compass Kitchener\Attendance\Compass Kitchener Attendance 09-10.xlsKitchener\Compass Kitchener\09-10 Action Log.xls