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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass Kitchener - 2004-09-01September 1,2004 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES CITY OF KITCHENER The Compass Kitchener Committee met this date, commencing at 4:00 p.m. Present: Don Bourgeois, Trudy Beaulne, Paul Royston Staff: Carla Ladd, Shelley Adams, Rob Browning, Glen Richardson, Barb Wagner Regrets: John Hall, Dan Williams, Trudi Bunting, Dan Williams, Pat Doherty, Glen Woolner 1. Downtown Strateqic Plan - Volume III Glen Richardson, Manager, Downtown Development provided an overview of the Downtown Strategic Plan Volume III (2004) - The Implementation Plan. Volume I outlined the high level strategic plan and the areas of focus were set out in 2003 in Volume II. Volume III is the implementation plan, setting out the strategic position of the City and detailed actions. The City welcomes feedback on the document from partners including residents, the KDBA, neighbourhood associations and the advisory committees. The Downtown Strategic Plan - Volume III will be presented to Finance & Corporate Services Committee on October 18, 2004. Time of presentation will be confirmed to Compass Kitchener members closer to the date. D. Bourgeois felt that the high level planning detail in the Downtown Strategic Plan could be used in other sectors as well. He noted that the arts groups in Kitchener are poorly organized and therefore, have less capacity to accomplish unified goals. Direction needs to come from outside of the individual arts groups and needs to be somewhat dictatorial. With proper direction and organization, the vitality sector in Kitchener has the potential to become extremely successful, attracting jobs, and successful art ventures to the City. The City of Toronto has assigned an Economic Development Officer to each of the 7 identified clusters, to help them become self sufficient and to increase their profiles. 2. Update on Meetinqs with Environics Research Group and EKOS Consultinq D. Bourgeois noted that since the meeting is short of a quorum, indepth reporting on the meetings with Environics Research Group and EKOS Consulting will be deferred to a later date. Don provided a brief summary of the Environics research; a values based approach to identify different groups in a community. This model may provide a better opportunity for longer term planning. Committee members agreed to invite Environics to attend the October Compass Kitchener meeting. 3. Update on Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Strateq¥ D. Bourgeois provided an update on the Committee's involvement with the City's response regarding the Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Strategy. T. Beaulne, P. Doherty, G. Woolner and D. Bourgeois attended subcommittee meetings to provide input for the City's response to the Province. This is a complex document and wide-ranging discussion took place. A summary of discussion covered a variety of topics as follows: Does the City recommend support in principle? There are some arguments against support in principle since the document represents greater growth than what some residents want. COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES September 1,2004 - 13 - CITY OF KITCHENER Designation of the Waterloo International Airport. Greater articulation of transportation connections to Windsor and Fort Erie. Identity of the urban communities versus small towns. How to align Kitchener's economic strategic and the economic strategy presented in the report without restricting Kitchener's cluster strategy and mix of housing, etc. Transportation - discussion re: the priority of movement of goods and people. Primarily, focus should be on movement of goods and movement of people to some extent to Toronto and within Region (LRT). Discussion regarding working with Region since the funding will be distributed from the Province to the Region for coordination. Indepth discussion regarding identification of the broader social and health issues which contrasts from the report's focus on hard infrastructure and economics. Implementation - strong sense has to be coherency in provincial government policy, reciprocal responsibilities and flow of information across all levels of government and private sector. Need multi-level cooperation, responsibility and accountability. Currently indicators are only measured at the level of the municipality - accountability needs to be present on all sides, with involvement from the Provincial Auditor and Minister of Finance as well. It was noted that the basic concepts have been well managed in Kitchener - we have been managing efficiencies with people with common interests from the ground up, however what is needed now is the dedicated resources to allow this to happen. Compass Kitchener requested the final staff report be distributed to members. 4. Updates * T. Beaulne distributed additional information on the Woolwich Township's Healthy Communities Project including a summary of research completed by a student through the Social Planning Council. C. Ladd distributed information on clusters in Ontario, including a presentation from James Milway focusing on Kitchener's top clusters. She noted that James Milway is making a presentation at the Chamber of Commerce on September 23rd. Tickets are available through the Chamber of Commerce. 5. Action Items C. Ladd and S. Adams are working on the schematic to depict the healthy communities plan, linkages and alignments Presentations for the Environmental Strategic Plan, and Leisure Facilities Master Plan to be scheduled commencing in the fall 2004. Environics Research Group will be invited to the October 6th meeting. Committee members are requested to RSVP 2-3 days before the meeting as we have an out-of-town guest travelling in for the presentation. The staff report on the Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Strategy will be distributed to Compass Kitchener members as soon as it becomes available. 6. Adjournment Meeting adjourned 5:30 p.m.