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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-25 DAAC Minutes Downtown Action & Advisory Committee Minutes Thursday, May 25, 20234:00 p.m. Location: In Person, City Hall (Schmalz room) In Attendance Brandon Van Dam, Will Turman, Izabela Wyllie, Darren Becks, Linda Jutzi, Debbie Chapman, Aislinn Clancy, Thea Mistry Meeting Called to Order: 4:03pm Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests: Nothing to declare Agenda Items 1. Welcome, Land Acknowledgment and DAAC Business a. Accept April minutes (Will suggested one wording change, then minutes unanimously accepted) b. Welcome to Annabelle Girard, who will be representing the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee (ACAC) at DAAC meetings 2. Charles Street Terminal Visioning Lab Exercise Mistie Brown, Community Engagement and Communications, Planning, Development & Legislative Services, Region of Waterloo (60 minutes) 4:08pm Mistie Brown introduced herself and her role at the Region, and said that one incredible file in her portfolio is the Charles Street Terminal. Sarah Miller is Land Portfolio Manager at the Region, in charge of looking at land that the Region owns and opportunities to build out affordable housing. Project lead for the Charles Street Terminal project. Ashley Graham also works on affordable housing with the Region. - Engagement program was designed by Overlap Associates - Here to gather input from DAAC - Will begin with a summary of engagement so far - Are working to develop a detailed definition of a specific theme for this site - Goal is rich and rigorous discussion. Important that you have a chance to reflect individually. - Names will not be attributed in comments or captured in the data. - The input is not to be captured in the minutes of this meeting. - If there is discomfort about how the data is collected, please reach out to Mistie. - Divided -specific features. - Each group shared 3 site priorities. Is this something that DAAC can vote on together as a committee? Is there something that DAAC can put its name/support behind? - During this moment in the engagement process, we are collecting input. Later, the Region will come back for endorsement from this committee. Will hope the presentation for council will accurately reflect this discussion, and you will have a chance to tell us if we got it right. What is the timing? - Plan is to wrap up this phase of the engagement process towards the end of the summer, and then moving into design phase with the goal to bring to council in the Fall. - The feedback loop is important after 2-years of information gathering. Will there be an opportunity for DAAC to endorse the report? - Yes Sarah and Mistie gave a project overview: - There has been an incredible amount of engagement from the community. - 3 acre site in the heart of downtown Kitchener, and people have experienced the site in many ways, all grounded as a gathering place for the region, and a hub of commerce. - COVID slowed down the visioning process, while the site served a public health purpose. - We sit on a working group with 6 people from the City of Kitchener. We are excited to bring community into that conversation in a meaningful way. Received 91 applications. - Over 1000 responses to initial public survey, a lot of passionate, equity-centred ideas. Feedback was grounded in guiding principles established by the working group: o Affordable Housing (Region definition is 80% of average market rent) o Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability (working towards a net 0 carbon baseline) o Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (very supported by community feedback received to date; bringing in a community facilitator) o Thriving Economy (sits in the centre of DT Kitchener, historically a community hub and centre for commerce) - Other ideas that came up in engagement: mixed use hub, Indigenous gathering space - Technical studies to understand the environmental side identified contamination in the property. What do we do with that information? Does the municipality clean it up or do we wait until there is a building partner to do that work? Affects timelines and identifies parameters/limitations. Looking to bring in a design architect and start on some modelling. - Original project timeline was 10 years, and that is still the reasonable timeframe. - Youth are an important group being consulted with. - Technical details and councillor reports are linked on the Engage page: https://www.engagewr.ca/charles-street-terminal-redevelopment Visioning exercise with DAAC members: - A moment to reflect on their reactions to this project - the four themes. These themes are broad and can mean a lot of things. Two questions: each member gets to choose the theme they want to dive into, based on lived experience, expertise, and passion, and define what that theme means to that site. What site specific features should we add to this definition? 3. DAAC Term of Reference DAAC sub-committee update (5:15pm) a. Proposed changes and discussion about updating the DAAC Terms of Reference - Joel shared that one of the main things we wanted to include is captur ? - One thing to flag: We could have a more robust discussion around committee representation o with DAACs mandate. o this representation. o ACAC this year is more diverse. o Is there an opportunity to identify other organizations that would appoint a member to DAAC (similar to how the BIA has a representative)? o Could we be more successful in attracting Downtown business owners? o Is 15 members too large for a fulsome conversation? Some suggested that it is; however, the full group is rarely in attendance, so perhaps it would be fine. - about returning to the terms of reference in the next couple of meetings? We could shape progressively over the rest of the year. o We would want to have the changes by the end of September, so that it could go to EcDev Director, then Clerks, then Council, before the next call out for members (usually in November.) 4. DAAC Business and wrap up: (5 minutes) a. - time to talk about this b. June agenda - Revised DTK Vision and Principles - ACAC plan - Suggestion: If we brought dinner, it could be a 3 hour meeting 1hr, 1hr, 1hr on Terms of Reference - Alternate suggestion: The Terms of Reference could be worked on offline, and we could meet about it in September. Darren and Thea could preemptively check with Clerks about things we can and cannot change and could have a conversation with the Economic Development Director, in preparation for a September meeting. o We could create a Google Drive where everyone has access, members could provide their comments and notes by the end of June, and Darren and Thea could bring to Clerks/EcDev. (Joel will add everyone to the Google Drive with access to comment) Adjournment5:39 p.m.