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Home My WebLink About2024-02-22 DAAC Minutes Downtown Action Advisory Committee February 22, 2024, 4:00 p.m. Schmalz Room - Second Floor City Hall City of Kitchener 200 King Street W, Kitchener, ON N2G 4G7 Present: S. Castle, Member J. Leslie, Member W. Turman, Chair Councillor D. Chapman, Member B. Van Dam, Vice Chair Councillor S. Stretch, Member A. Yescas, Member Staff: T. Mistry, Committee Administrator Additional Staff: Lori Muller, BIA _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Commencement The meeting commenced at 4p.m. The meeting began with introductions, followed by a Land Acknowledgement given by the Chair. 2. Disclosure of Pecuniary Interest and the General Nature Thereof None. 3. Delegations None. 4. Discussion Items 4.1 Introduce new Terms of Reference Introduced the new DAC Terms of Reference, provided some background information about why a revised version was needed, and highlighting the changes, including the following: 1 Modernized, reflecting what we do Number of required meetings changed to four, with additional meetings to be added as needed Reporting: Should the Committee elect to present to Council, the Committee shall provide the required materials and delegate. A way to connect what we care about to results Mandate: o Actively assisting with implementation of EcDev's action items o An Advisory Board for the CoK on various initiatives impacting the Downtown o Highlighting pre-project advice Committee composition. 4.2 What is DAC? What does DAC do? Trying to think of examples of stuff that happened last year that we would have been interested in, that didn't come up - the pop-up shop, for example. Shorter term projects are nice to be involved in, to see the results more quickly. Are there more things like the pop-up shop that we can push for? Last year was Vision heavy - quite long term, a lot of other people have already been consulted (though, DAC did make a positive impact on the quality of the final Downtown Vision and Principles) Tangible Interested in Special Events, the Pop-Up Shop... does DAC have a preference about how to engage about events? Such as feedback into the policies that define how events happen? Not interested in the nitty gritty (i.e. green lights or blue lights) For example, that exercise about Gaukel when we met on site and were visioning what it could look like. There were things that we talked about that you can actually see there now. It's great to see things come to fruition. 2 Councillors, BIA, you are members of DAC and we are interested in your thoughts as well. o Councillors like to see what Committee members say and see how they can support o One idea that comes to mind when talking about the Pop-Up Shop and the Gaukel Block - I wonder if as a collective we could come up with spaces like those that we would like to see animated. Perhaps there are City or Region-owned properties where we could do something interesting. o Councillors have a valuable and interesting vantage point that residents don't have access to. Could ask, what is the Committees position on x? o From what I'm hearing, there is a want from the Committee to be more agile and responsive. Council is slow moving. When looking to take on projects that aren't so long term, we need to be more responsive to needs that change in seasons. Living and working Downtown, DAC can tell us when things are tough. o If you are hearing things from constituents over and over that are things DAC could help with, let us know. o There are other Committees at the City that have overlapping areas of interest. Working collaboratively could be a force multiplier. 4.3 Honorarium and Reimbursement Policy Update Shared high level introduction of newly approved Honorarium and Reimbursement Policy. DAC is interested in learning more about the reimbursement options as they become available. It is relevant to the discussion around recruiting new members, and seeking to have a diversity of perspectives in DAC. 4.4 DAC Membership and Recruitment Shared information from Clerks about the call for new Committee member applications happening in the fall, in time for selection at the end of the current term. Feedback given about the recruitment timing, every 4 years there is an election. This application process isn't well timed to capture potential 3 interested engaged citizens. Sometimes, if someone doesn't get elected, they are asking how else can I get involved? By the time they look into Advisory Committees, they will have missed the application window. Committee challenged the answer that this Committee can't grow this year. DAC is supposed to represent the community. Can we push back on this as a Committee? How are four residents acceptable? Can we ask for a review on the recruitment timing and process? Maybe the outcomes of Committee effectiveness are related to recruitment. Can we help by letting potential new members know that the application isn't very much work? Is there an info session where current committee members could answer questions. Put faces to citizen committees? Something like that would remove some of those barriers and could help with representation in Committees 4.5 DAC Workplan Discussion What are our priorities? What do we want to work on this year? Shared information about the Downtown Team's 2024 workplan, as well as projects from other teams in Economic Development BIA Shared about two new events that they are excited to produce this year, the Summer Kick-Off Block Party, and the King East Night Market. o Idea to bring the ION into some of these events. Ride the train to get to the Night Market. Free rides, entertainment on the train. What is DAC interested in? Bramm Yards & Charles Street Terminal updates How the DTK Vision and Principles is actually being actioned, perhaps giving direction on what that looks like The Market - what is happening there the other 6 days of the week? Conestoga is shaping the Downtown - anything related to the College 4 Return to Office - what is the plan in general? Downtown is a neighbourhood. Square Peg - the July DTK merch pop-up. Interested in being involved if there is a call for artists. DAC is happy to help share information about Downtown projects. They could be given a collateral package for collaborators to amplify with assets to share. Ways to leverage the Committee for amplifying messages. How are those messages being shared? What information/stories is the Committee interested in? Anything related to pedestrianization of King o Sub-committee idea: put thought into the different factors, how would we deal with deliveries, etc. o DAC could help clarify the ideas Dog-friendly initiatives. I want to walk my dog downtown, but can't bring my dog into City Hall to drop my kid at daycare, or go into a café. What about signage? How do businesses communicate that dogs are welcome? We are not a dog friendly city, regardless of this new designation. Bring unfinished ideas and multiple options to the Committee. Don't wait until it's a fully thought out plan to ask DAC. DAC can help think through and inform the plan. 4.6 2023-2026 Strategic Plan - Areas of Interest Completed Areas of Interest checklist as a Committee. 4.7 DAC Meeting Scheduling Looking towards priorities, what do we want to look at first? Victoria Park master plan (early in engagement process) DTK Communications (website, telling the story...) Kitchener Market Strategy for Pedestrianizing King o King Street as a place. King East - how do we uniquely identify King Street East? (could look at King Street engagement at the Market around 2010, as this was discussed) 5 Conestoga College and students Office strategy Square Peg development of wraparound support and the DTK merch shop Placemaking in general Recruitment - getting creative and planning how we are recruiting as a Committee Decided to keep monthly calendar holds. Will look at this list, and see where it makes sense to schedule what. The Committee will be given lots of notice if it is decided that a meeting isn't needed in a particular month. If there is a DAC meeting, it will always be on the fourth Thursday of the month at 4pm. 5. Information Items 5.1 Downtown BIA - Representatives of the BIA presented about the Traveler's Tour, showing beautifully made short videos from their YouTube channel, and talking about the concept. - DAC idea to spread the word about initiatives like this through adjacent neighbourhood channels as well, such as an existing mailing list, or a targeted direct mailing so that people within a certain radius get that flyer in the mail. 6. Adjournment Meeting adjurned at 6:04pm 6