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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDowntown Action - 1995-02-03DAC\1995-02-03 KITCHENER DOWNTOWN ACTION COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 3, 1995 The Kitchener Downtown Action Committee met this date under the Chairmanship of Councillor Mark Yantzi with the following members present; Councillor Earen Redman, Councillor Jake Smola~ Councillor Berry Vrbanovic, Councillor Chiqstina Weylie, Marlene Guttensohn, Robert Braun, Nancy Brawley, Karen Simonean, Brian Hunsberger, Ken Clark Michelle Modssetti, Bt'git Heilig, Sheila Made Biers, Rev. Nell Carver, l,illian Kehl, Rita Westbrook Others Present: T. Brock Stanley, Don Snow, Grant NLxon, Stephen Lauer 1. OPENING REMARKS Mark Yantzi called the meeting to order and introduced the two new members of the Downtown Action Committee being L illian Kehl and Reverend Nell Carver. This was followed by an introduction of all membem of the Committee. Mark Yantzi advised that at 9:30 a~m~ Sybil lqYenette, together with the Mayor's Task Force, will join the meeting. APPROVAL OF AGENDA - FEBRUARY 3, 1995 Mark Yantzi advised that Don Snow will have to leave the meeting early at 9:00 a~m~ to attend to other City business so that Item No. 8, Parking PI'oposal for Downtown, will be brought forward. With this change he requested approval of the Agenda~ Moved by Robert Braun Seconded by Sheila Made Biers That the Agenda be approved. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - JANUARY IR, 1995 Moved by Councillor Berry Vrbanovic Seconded by Councillor Karen Redman That the Minutes of the meeting of January IR, 1995 be adopted. Carried Carried 4. PARKING PROPOSAL FOR DOWNTOWN Don Snow advised that the Parking PI'oposal was presented to the Public Works and Transportation Committee on Monday and received the support of the Committee. The overall PI'oposal is for an additional 3~ spaces which may or may not be metered depending on the discussion to take place at Council on February 6, 1995. Don Snow noted that in 199~, ~4 metered spaces were installed on King Street. In this regard, the PI'oposal now before City Council for consideration will do two things~ Fh~t~ it will clean up and redesign the original ~4 spaces and secondly it will add an additional 3~ spaces~ While ten trees will be removed, these will be replaced by some lQ trees~ He also noted, that the fflst sp~qng work of the City paving contractor will be to commence paving of the entire length of King Street~ This work will be integrated with the const~ction work associated with the provision of the above-noted parking spaces Don Snow also outlined additional reconstruction and paving to be undertaken by the Regional Municipality of Waterloo at the intersection of Victoria and King Street; as well as on Benton Street. MicheHe Morissetti inquired as to whether the nasa'owing of the sidewalks will result in the situation where additional bike racks will not be able to be provided. Don Snow responded that there are still going to be numerous areas that will facilitate the adding of bike racks to the Downtow~ Ken Clark raised a concern with respect to the provision of handicap spaces in the 3~ additional spaces to be provided. He also raised the question for whether or not angle parking could be provided. Don Snow responded that there is a real concern with providing handicapped parking right on King Street and that he has discussed this concern with K-W Rehabilitatiom The main concern associated with the problem is the additional space required for handicapped people to exit their vehicle and the safety concerns of such exiting taking place into the travelled portion of the carriage way. Jake Smola inquired as to the whether this problem could be alleviated by putting the handicapped space into the very fh~t space on the street and leaving room behind the vehicle. Don Snow responded that doing this would still not overcome the difficulty of having a diqver exiting his vehicle into the traffic flow. Rita Westbrook inquired about the possibility of having one space reserved for a police vehicle immediately outside of the KDBA~ Don Snow indicated that this could be considered, but he also noted that the provision of spaces for various officials including City Officials has been reviewed and that City Official parking around the City Hall has been rest~qcted. Karen Simoneau wondered if additional parking could be provided near to the grocery store on King Street for Seniors~ Don Snow noted that some additional parking spaces have been provided in this location but the provision of further spaces is rest~qcted by the configuration of the intersection and the necessity to enable transit vehicles to operate at the intersectiom Councillor Karen Redman inquired about the impact that additional parking spaces will have on the operation of the buses~ Don Snow indicated that provision has been made to ensure that buses can get to curbside, however the main concern with buses still relates to couriers and loading and unloading of vehicles within designated transit stops~ Brigit Heilig inquired why dimes and nickels have been eliminated as currency for operation of meters~ DOn Snow responded that the small value of these coins does not enable meters to process them and to get a meaningful time span as a result. Robert Braun was concerned that the additional parking being provided would intex{ere with delivery vehicles being able to undertake their loading and unloading. DOn Snow advised that for the most part access can be provided through the rear lanes and that it may be necessary to provide enforcement to see that such access is used. l,illian Kehl suggested that the angle parking provided on Duke Street across from Market Square might be considered for disabled parking. DOn Snow noted that this is private property which is used throughout the week and is managed by the City and used by the Market on Saturdays He would review this situatiom 5. COMMITTEE MEETING DATES Councillor Mark Yantzi indicated that this meeting was shil~d to a Friday on a test basis He inquired as to how Committee members felt about having the Committee meetings Thursday or Ftqday. In this regard, both Councillors Redman and Weyhe noted that the fhst Thursday of every month is Regional Finance Administration Committee and that accordingly, they would have to choose between the two meetings It was noted that Karen Taylor Harrison can not make it on Ftqdays~ After considerable discussion by the committee it was felt that the second Thursday of every month would be the best alternative as it would enable Thursdays to be utilized while solving the problem for Regional Councillors~ Accordingly, the next meeting of the Committee will be March 9, 1995 from 8:30 to 10:30. 6. l~D.B.A. Report Nancey Brawley provided the b2D. B.A~ Report noting that the board is now going through its budget process for 1995. Among the various initiatives that the board is undertaking is its initiative related to business development~ this includes a more supportive environment for various businesses and networking. Other initiatives include maintenance of window displays, event promotion including Arts Fest June 2nd & 3rd 1995, Cxq~ise Night July 14, 1995 and a Country Hoe Down Auctiom Work continues with respect to the feasibility of the Mural PI'ogram as well as on ICD. B.A~ involvement in the Clock Tower PI'oject and St. Jerome's College. l,illian Kehl noted her past involvement with buskers and also noted that in her extensive travels she has not come across travel brochures and pamphlets outlining the benefits of Kitchener Downtown in comparison to what other communities provide. She made the suggestion of having a Country Bizarre in Market Square in November and the possibility of bxqnging Senior Citizen Buses to that event. 7. UPDATE STRATEGIC PLAN Stephen Lauer passed out a Community Teaching Plan Framework Status February L 1995 Report. PI'oviding the report~ he outlined the revision of an additional area of key direction being that of transportation and parking. As well as a refocussing of the immediate community relations directiom He also noted changes incorporated into the underlying philosophy, assumptions and guiding principles to the vision statement that were brought forward by the discussion at DAC at the last meeting. He noted the work on mission statements for each key directive and the fact that most of these have now been completeck He indicated further work would be required on Arts Cultural Heritage Entertainment as we need to go back to those people involved directly in that area The item that k still to be done k the Transportation Parking Mission Statement. 8. MAYOR'S TASK FORCE Sybil l~'enette entered the meeting with the Mayor's Task Force and introduced the task force members Ian MacNaughton, Chairman; Mac Voisin, Bruce Whitestone, John MacDonald, Mary McLaughlin. Members of the Downtown Action Committee introduced themselves to the Task Force. Ian MacNaughton, Chairman, of the Task Force, addi'essed the Committee indicating that a round table discussion with the DAC Committee has been planned for the evening of Tuesday, February 7, 1995 from 7:30 - 9:30 in the Conestoga Room~ The purpose of this meeting k to be of an inlbrmal nature to provide an opportunity for the Task Force to meet DAC members, to hsten to what they have to say to the Committee on an inlbrmal basis and to enable the Task Force to get off on the right foot with their directiom He indicated that the Task Force could be used by the DAC Committee as a vehicle to communicate their idea~ Mac Voisin indicated that the work done by the DAC Committee would be helpful to enable the Task Force to be brought up to date and to get an appreciation of the many solutions related to the downtown so that we can end up with a plan that k workable and achievable. Sybil lqYenette emphasized that the meeting on the 97th would not be one in which formal presentation of briefs would take place but would basically be a round table discussiom The Downtown Action Committee broke for coffee at this point to enable the Task Force and DAC Committee members to interact and to have a brief discussion with one another. 9. MURALS PROGRAM UPDATE Nancy Brawley indicated that the public forum held on January 24, 1995 was very well attendeck There was excellent discussion including cla~4fications with respect to the fact that Mural funding could be through fund raising and would not have to be dependant upon Government Grant~ It was also cla~4fied that the type of Murals to be considered would not be similar to those presently found on Goudy's Lane. In that regard, it was noted that 5 colour photo packages would be put together illust~'ating the various murals found in Chemainus and that this would be available at 22 King St~'eet; as well as through banks and ta~st companie~ Bh'git Heilig indicated if this material could be available for review by Community Groups, particularly with respect to the King St~'eet East community on February 23, 1995. Nancy Brawley felt that this was not going to be a problen~ 10. TERMS OF REFERENCE Brock Stanley outlined in general terms the process that could be considered by the Committee with respect to updating and reviewing it's terms of reference. In that regard, he ch'ew the Committees attention to the recently revised terms of reference for the Environmental Committee. He reviewed for the Committee the various provisions in that terms of reference ch'awing parallels to the Downtown Action Committee. It was suggested that the Committee might give consideration to using the general framework and format of the Environmental Committee Terms of Reference when conside~qng the revised terms of reference for DAC. 11. FEBRUARY 7, 1995 - MEETING WITH THE DOWNTOWN TASK FORCE Councillor Jake Smola suggested that the Committee have some discussion with respect to the Downtown Action Committee's input into the meeting with the Downtown Task Force members which was brought to the DAC Committees attention earlier in the meeting. His suggestion was that we should perhaps be putting some effort into a formal presentation to the Downtown Task Force. In response, Councillor's Mark Yantzi and Berry Vrbanovic indicated that they saw this initial meeting as a round table meeting and that there would not be any formal presentations to be made that evening. After some discussion it was recognized that the new members of DAC would not have had the benefit of the discussion associated with and lea(ling up to our present statements in the proposed Community St~'ategic Pla~ In that regard, Nancey Brawley volunteered to put together a package that could be picked up at ICD. B.A~ offices that would summarize all of the material that the Committee has been working on with respect to the Communities St~'ategic Pla~ It was felt that this material would provide the basis of any necessary inlbrmal discussions and positions that we would like to put forward to the Task Force for the downtowm In addition, it would b~qng new members fully up to date on where we are in the proces~ This material would also include the summary's of the two vision conference~ DOWNTOWN TRANSPORTATION STUDY Councillor Redman inquired as to whether or not we had received the terms of reference for the proposed Regional Downtown Transportation Study. In this regard, Mr. Stanley replied that the funding is just now being reviewed by Regional Finance and Regional Council and that the terms of reference have not been formalized~ He advised that he would contact Graham Vincent and DOn Snow with respect to receiving a cb'aft terms of reference and determining how input to the process could be provided to the DAC Committee. The meeting then adjourned~ s:brock\dacO2~08.min