HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-15-021 - Neighbourhood Strategy Objectives Staff Report
I rTC'.�► t .R Community Services Department wmkitchener.ca
REPORT TO: Community & Infrastructure Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING: March 9, 2015
SUBMITTED BY: Michael May, DCAO Community Services Department
(519-741-2200, ex. 7079)
PREPARED BY: Michael May, DCAO Community Services Department
(519-741-2200, ex. 7079)
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All
DATE OF REPORT: February 24, 2015
REPORT NO.: CSD-15-021
SUBJECT: Neighbourhood Strategy Objectives
RECOMMENDATION:
That staff be directed to work with community members to develop a
comprehensive Neighbourhood Strategy focused on achieving two objectives:
I. Helping the municipality, citizens and community groups coordinate efforts
in planning, building and supporting safe and thriving neighbourhoods.
II. Creating a framework to facilitate and support a citizen-led approach to
placemaking in the city's neighbourhoods.
BACKGROUND:
On February 23, 2015, Kitchener City Council approved the City's 2015 business plan
which included the development of a Neighbourhood Strategy as a corporate project.
The need for a formal Neighbourhood Strategy has been identified through a variety of
previous City of Kitchener strategy documents, including:
• Leisure Facilities Master Plan (2005)
• Growth Management Strategy (2009)
• Leisure Facilities Master Plan Update (2013)
***This information is available in accessible formats upon request. ***
Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance.
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REPORT:
The City of Kitchener has a long history of helping to plan, build and support safe and
thriving neighbourhoods through a variety of municipal investments and partnerships
with other orders of government, community organizations and citizens.
In addition to this municipal work, a wide variety of community groups play a very active
and critical role in helping to create safe and thriving neighbourhoods. The following
diagram (Figure 1.0) is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the different
components and community groups that contribute to a safe and thriving
neighbourhood. While this diagram is not exhaustive of everything that contributes to
our neighbourhoods, it is intended to demonstrate the complexity and diversity of issues
and community groups that are already having an impact on our neighbourhoods.
Figure 1.0 —A Comprehensive Perspective to a Neighbourhood
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At this time, the City has no strategy that takes a comprehensive approach to all of
these different neighbourhood elements and community partners, and explores
opportunities to help coordinate, leverage and better support work within our
neighbourhoods.
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High-Level Vision: What are we trying to achieve?
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• Begin in Q2 2015 A • Citizen-led • Often small initiatives
• Significant engagement • City facilitated . Participatory budgeting?
• Research into placemaking • Ward Councillor involved • Things that bring
best practices people together
Outputs: Outputs: Outcomes:
1) Comprehensive City- 1) Individual Neighbourhood 1) Safe and thriving
Wide Neighbourhood Action Plans developed by neighbourhoods that are:
Strategy with community members, which
recommendations to include: • Vibrant and walkable.
City Council.
• A statement about the • Full of active and well used
2) Framework to guide unique identity of the gathering places(parks,
and support citizens to neighbourhood. trails, community centres,
create individual libraries).,
Neighbourhood Action • A list of priority actions that
Plans as part of Phase could be taken to strengthen Connected communities
2 (tools, templates, the neighbourhood. (physically, personally).
processes, supports).
• Implementation of some Built or! the,priorities of
quick-win, citizen-led engaged citizens(on a
placemaking initiatives. sustained basis,).
Benefits of a Kitchener Neighbourhood Strategy:
A Neighbourhood Strategy would provide a wide variety of benefits to the corporation
and to the broader community. Some of those benefits include-
1. Increased Citizen Engagement — engages a wide diversity of community members
in planning, building and supporting their own neighbourhood. Specific efforts would
be made to engage residents not already engaged in community building through
outreach to a number of existing organizations (e.g. service clubs, sports groups).
2. Greater Sense of Belonging — engages residents in identifying the unique identity /
character of their neighbourhood and facilitates their active involvement in initiatives
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intended to strengthen that identity. In the long-term, this increased involvement in
their neighbourhood has the potential to increase residents' civic pride, their sense
of belonging and public participation city-wide (e.g. volunteering, voter turnout).
3. Citizen-Led, City Facilitated Approach to Placemaking — will create the
framework (tools, process, templates and support) to facilitate residents coming
together to talk about what makes their neighbourhood unique and prioritize work
that could be done to strengthen their neighbourhood. As highlighted by the Project
for Public Spaces (www.pps.org), "placemaking" is a multi-faceted approach to
planning, designing and managing public spaces that "capitalizes on a local
community's assets, inspiration, and potential, ultimately creating good public
spaces that promote people's health, happiness, and wellbeing".
4. Celebration of our Heritage / History — by identifying the unique character of our
individual neighbourhoods, residents will be able to prioritize opportunities to
celebrate the historic elements of their neighbourhoods through a variety of
initiatives (e.g. street pole banners, neighbourhood entrance features, community
events, public art commemorating a historic neighbourhood residence).
5. Alignment of City & Community Efforts — by bringing residents together to talk
about the unique character of their neighbourhood and the priorities for
improvement, the municipality and community groups have an opportunity to
maximize their existing efforts and investments by aligning their work to support
those resident identified priorities.
6. Contributes to a Healthy Community — engaging residents in a deliberate
neighbourhood planning exercise will lead to outcomes such as more interesting and
better community gathering spaces (e.g. playgrounds, community centres, green
spaces), citizens more engaged in municipal decisions, and neighbours that are
more connected to one another. All of these outcomes lead to a healthier community
and healthier living for our residents.
Potential Strategy Outcomes:
In addition to these high-level benefits, a Neighbourhood Strategy has the potential to
result in a wide variety of tangible outcomes. The following is a list of potential outcomes
that neighbourhood groups might identify as priorities for their area. This list is by no
means a comprehensive list and is provided for example purposes only:
• Neighbourhood specific signage.
• More neighbourhood-based events (community BBQs, potlucks).
• Gateway / entrance features into our neighbourhoods.
• New and expanded community gardens.
• More public art in neighbourhoods.
• `Easy-to-do' street parties and neighbourhood BBQs.
• More neighbourhood markets.
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• Public murals in public spaces.
• More park benches in green spaces and along trails.
• Increased plaques and commemorative signage to celebrate heritage.
• New and enhanced community gathering spaces.
• More amenities at parks, playgrounds and sportsfields.
The Fundamental Principle: A Strategy by Neighbours for Neighbourhoods
The most fundamental principle behind the development of a Neighbourhood Strategy
will be citizen engagement. To be successful, this strategy should be built "by
neighbours for neighbourhoods".
Significant efforts will need to be taken to collaborate with existing community groups
and stakeholders, and with residents who have not traditionally been engaged in
helping to plan, build and support their neighbourhood. The following are some
examples of ideas that have been proposed as part of the citizen engagement process
for this strategy. The ultimate citizen engagement plan for the Neighbourhood Strategy
would be developed by the project team:
• Utilize the Safe & Healthy Community Advisory Committee as an advisory
committee for the project (e.g. all materials would be reviewed by the committee
before presentation to City Council).
• Include a number of community group and citizen representatives on the project
team leading the strategy development. Create two co-chair positions to lead the
project team; one would be a member of City staff and another would be a citizen
representative.
• Utilize existing meetings of large and small community groups (e.g. Neighbourhood
Association Summit, All Council Advisory Committee Meeting, Festival of
Neighbourhoods, Athletics Award Banquet) to engage stakeholders. This would
require the agreement and active participation/leadership of the groups organizing
these events.
• Ask several key community partners already working in our neighbourhoods (e.g.
Festival of Neighbourhoods, United Way) to organize and lead individual
"Neighbourhood Summits" that would invite their own contacts to participate in a
discussion on specific components of a neighbourhood strategy. A written report
from these summits would then be provided to the Neighbourhood Strategy project
team (and could be posted online). This would help us reach individuals that may not
traditionally engage with the municipality but are actively connected to other
community groups.
• Engage in tactics that will reach people where they are, as opposed to requiring
them to come to us through some kind of formal town hall meeting (e.g. existing
festivals and events, at arenas and public swimming pools).
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• Develop and implement a comprehensive citizen engagement plan utilizing a variety
of online and traditional methods to engage residents who are- (1) not active
members of existing community groups, and (2) are members of an existing
association/club/group that have not traditionally participated in this type of strategy
development (e.g. sports groups, service clubs, religious institutions, school boards).
Project Governance:
In a deliberate effort to embed the fundamental principles of citizen engagement into the
development of the Neighbourhood Strategy, the Phase 1 Project Team will have more
citizen representatives on it than staff representatives. Figure 2.0 outlines the
governance for Phase 1 of the Neighbourhood Strategy.
Strategy Approval Authority
Kitchener City Council
Project q r
Michael May,IDCAO
Project Manager
TBD
Project
Co-Chair(City staff) Co-Chair(community rep)
Advisory Committee . City staff,Project Manager Safe&IWealthy Chair Staff Advisory Committee
City staff,CPS Safe&Wealthy Rep
Esafl-&Wealthy Community " City staff,Planning Compass Kitchener Rep Members TBD (10)
• City staff,Transportation Neighbourhood Association Rep
City staff,Parks q United)Way Rep
. City staff,Bylaw Crime Prevention Council Rep
City staff,Volunteers Citizen Rep#2(Placemaker)
Citizen Rep#1(Placerxnaker) Ciltizen Rep#3(Placemaker)
Note #1: The Project Team will present updates to the Safe & Healthy Community
Advisory Committee at regular intervals and seek input at major milestones.
Note #2: City staff will be invited to apply for membership on an internal advisory
committee. This committee will be focused on helping to make a culture shift within the
organization to better support the eventual outcomes of the Neighbourhood Strategy.
Members will include a mix of frontline and management staff. The Project Team will
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present updates to the Staff Advisory Committee at regular intervals and seek input at
major milestones.
Noted #3 (Communications Loop): The Project Manager will be responsible for
distributing regular status reports to key community partners, advisory committees, City
staff, City Council and the general public as the project proceeds.
Note #4: A variety of community partners, not represented on the project team, will be
asked to take a leadership or partnership role in engaging residents (e.g. hosting
Neighbourhood Summits).
Phase 1 Workplan (2015):
In order to complete Phase 1, the Neighbourhood Strategy Project Team (discussed
above) will be tasked with completing the following research and actions:
1. Design and implement a significant citizen engagement process that will inform:
• a vision for the role Kitchener neighbourhoods will play in our community;
• a strength and gap analysis of how the City is planning, building and
supporting neighbourhoods and how we can better coordinate our work with
other community partners;
• recommendations for improvements that may apply to all neighbourhoods;
• a map of Kitchener's neighbourhoods (project team to decide if this will be
included).
2. Conduct research into best practices in citizen-led neighbourhood placemaking.
3. Create a framework to guide and support citizens in the creation of
Neighbourhood Action Plans (Phase 2). The framework may include:
• Processes and guidelines for creating a Neighbourhood Action Plan.
• Tools, templates and other supports to help citizens create a Neighbourhood
Action Plan.
• A process for prioritizing the creation of Neighbourhood Action Plans.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
The City of Kitchener's 2011 — 2014 Strategic Plan included the following "Community
Vision" statement which puts a specific priority on our neighbourhoods: "Together, we
will build an innovative, caring and vibrant Kitchener with safe and thriving
neighbourhoods."
While the City's next strategic plan has not yet been finalized, on September 15, 20147
Compass Kitchener presented City Council with the results of the Environics survey and
Your Kitchener, Your Say! community engagement campaign. Utilizing all of the citizen
input collected through both those processes, Compass Kitchener identified
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"neighbourhoods" as a community priority that should be built into the City's upcoming
strategic plan.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
Funding to execute the citizen engagement program for this strategy is already
budgeted within the capital budget. Staff do not foresee any additional resources being
required to finalize Phase 1 of this work.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Even before this project was launched, staff engaged a number of key community
groups and leaders in the area of neighbourhood development to help clearly define the
objectives, governance and workplan for the development of this strategy.
• Throughout the summer of 2014, the City ran a targeted online survey intended
to reach out to individuals with specific knowledge and experience in
neighbourhood development and placemaking to get their preliminary input into
how to best set up this strategy to be successful down the road.
• In the fall of 2014, staff met with a number of community partners and key
stakeholders to gather their preliminary input into the strategy:
o Safe & Healthy Community Advisory Committee (3 meetings)
• Compass Kitchener
• Neighbourhood Association representatives (focus group)
• United Way
• KW Community Foundation
• TAMARACK (An Institute for Community Engagement)
• Social Planning Council
• Festival of Neighbourhoods
• Several community leaders in placemaking
• The recommendations presented to City Council in this report are based largely
on the input received through these consultations, along with best practices
research conducted into a number of North American municipalities already
doing interesting work in the areas of neighbourhood development and
placemaking.
• On February 5, staff presented draft recommendations for the Neighbourhood
Strategy to the Safe & Healthy Community Advisory Committee for their
feedback before the recommendations were presented to Council. In response to
that presentation, the advisory committee passed the following motion-
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"That the Safe & Healthy Community Advisory Committee supports staff's
recommendations related to objectives, governance and work plan to
guide the development and implementation of a Neighbourhood Strategy."
• A final copy of this staff report has been emailed to members of the Safe &
Healthy Community Advisory Committee and Compass Kitchener. In addition,
staff has shared this report with a number of the stakeholders (listed above) who
were previously consulted in 2014 to thank them for their participation and to
demonstrate how their input was used in formulating the recommendations to
City Council.
• This report has also been posted on the City's website with the agenda in
advance of the committee meeting.
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Jeff Willmer, CAO
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