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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDowntown Advisory - 2000-01-13KITCHENER DOWNTOWN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES January 13, 2000 The Kitchener Downtown Advisory Committee met this date under the Chairmanship of Councillor Mark Yantzi, with the following members present: Councillor Karen Taylor- Harrison, Nancy Brawley, Denise Strong, Anita Petsche-Good, Tom Brennand, Donna Kuehl, Denise Shelbourne, Ruth Tomlinson, Brenton Toderian, Peter Walberg, Trudy Beaulne, Mike Peng, Howard Rotberg, Doug Hoch, Debbie Schlichter, David Corks Others:Molly Green, Tim Fox, Mike Bratton Regrets:Howard Marr, Peggy Walshe, Mary Drandzyk, Regis Coladipietro, Neil Carver, Barry Zehr, Chris Cowie 1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA – January 13, 2000 Councillor Karen Taylor-Harrison asked for an up-dated list of committee members and contact numbers. See attached. It was moved that the agenda for the January 13, 2000 meeting be approved. Moved by:Tom Brennand Seconded by:Ruth Tomlinson CARRIED 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – December 9, 1999 It was moved that the minutes from the December 9, 1999 meeting be approved. Moved by:Karen Taylor-Harrison Seconded by:Mike Peng CARRIED 3. DOWNTOWN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MAKE-UP David Corks handed out maps of the downtown and surrounding neighbourhoods (see attached). A discussion of the Committee make-up, as attached in the minutes, took place. It was decided that if the Committee was in agreement with the proposed changes, that Council would be asked to make these changes. Mike Peng asked why the removal of some members. David Corks explained 1 DOWNTOWN ADVISORY COMMITTEE MAKE-UP cont’d that the Committee needed to be trimmed and that some members never came to any of the meetings. Moved by:Anita Petsche-Good Seconded by:Denise Shelbourne CARRIED 4. CHANGE OF QUORUM NUMBER David Corks suggested that to ensure a quorum, the Committee would ask Council to reduce the number from 14 to 10. Moved by:Trudy Beaulne Seconded by:Tom Brennand CARRIED 5. COMMITTEE MANDATE – PURPOSE/SCOPE David Corks reported that our mandate which outlines our duties is very straightforward. Peter Walberg asked how we could get more cultural/ethnic representation on our Committee. Mark Yantzi suggested we could possibly get representation from different organizations/groups, i.e. multi-cultural, new immigrants, so that our Committee reflects all areas. 6. STRATEGIC PLAN David Corks explained why we are reviewing this topic, since at the last meeting many new ideas were suggested. David advised that we already have a Strategic Plan in place that had been approved by City Council in February 1999. David also commented that plans are moving along nicely, the Strategic Plan is well underway and that we have 36 items in progress and/or completed out of the 58 items on our list. David then introduced Tim Fox who gave the following report on the Strategic Plan. DOWNTOWN KITCHENER STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN 1999 – 2001 The final report of the Mayor’s Task Force on the downtown became the work program of the Downtown Development Team and the actions outlined in that plan have all been addressed over the period of 1995 to 1998. The Strategic Plan approved by Council in February of 1999 expands upon the successful implementation of the Mayor’s task force and moves us into the next phase of downtown development. 2 STRATEGIC PLAN cont’d Plan came out of 2 streams of activity: 1. A DDT strategic planning session early in 1998 that included City staff, KDBA representatives and the two downtown ward Councillors · Resulted in a draft strategic plan 2. Downtown Advisory Committee’s strategic plan, which had been ongoing for a long period of time, and DAC’s list of 48 top priorities completed in September of 1998 The strategic plan that resulted contains 58 action items, goals that we could all work toward. It was presented to DAC in November 1998, showing how the DAC top 48 was rolled into the plan · DAC members made several comments and the plan was finalized and came back to DAC in December of that year The plan then went through Management Committee and then on to Council in February 1999. This plan is a working plan, the target times operate as a guideline for moving ahead and are not fixed in stone. The objective is to ensure that we can work through the items in the plan over a three-year period. So far, we are moving in the right direction, but we still have a lot of work to do. Of the 58 items, 23 are underway and another 13 are completed (although many items can never really be put to bed, they need to be updated, reworked over time, etc.). In total, 36 items are either underway or completed. There is still much work to be done. HIGHLIGHTS Partnering events with businesses in the downtown · Arts, Culture and Events sit on KDBA Entertainment Committee · Blues Festival Encourage and support new cultural and entertainment projects by participation on project teams, recognizing that this is an important form of economic development · KDBA Entertainment Committee · Christkindl Market · Theatre & Company · Children’s Museum · And we can do more! Encourage organized arts and music organizations to set up residence in the downtown and be active in the downtown · Theatre & Company · Globe Studios 3 STRATEGIC PLAN cont’d · JM Drama (esp. our Parks & Recreation Dept.) Examine the potential of a Children’s Museum in the downtown · DONE!!! Develop a series of walking tours and information brochures demonstrating the variety and range of cultural, architectural and artistic points of interest within the Kilometre of Culture · Church tour · Public art tour · Heritage tour Meet with senior governments, school boards and agencies that receive public funds to encourage them to locate downtown · Conestoga College · U of W · Preliminary discussions (very brief) with WLU · Revenue Canada · Ontario Courts · School Boards · Ongoing Explore methods for prohibiting or limiting the locations or the number of those operations in the downtown that are incompatible with the revitalization efforts in the downtown · Liquor license application review committee (with policy and procedure) · Dealt with the XXX theatre issue · Body rubs previously In addition, · New marketing materials are being prepared, including a complete housing developers package (by mid-February) · Establishment of a staff committee to work with the film industry (television, feature film, video) · Streetscape master plan will see implementation this spring · Rezoning of the warehouse district to bring it into the downtown Peter Walberg suggested that in order to give some balance to the comments that Tim made, we should address those items in the Strategic Plan that have been problematic in achieving. Tim Fox responded that it is something that we could address, but there haven’t been any serious problems per se. The real issue is that we have had major issues and large developments to deal with this year and they take time. Tim also commented that we should be in a position to complete almost all of the tasks by the end of the three-year period. 4 STRATEGIC PLAN cont’d Trudy Beaulne stated that when the strategic plan was being developed, the focus was that the downtown is a valuable place to live and work, and that the strategic plan has since changed – things should be stated more specifically, giving the underlying message. David Corks commented that we can match the Strategic Plan with the “wish list” items given by the Committee at the December meeting. 7. ACTION ITEMS – UNFINISHED BUSINESS David Corks reported on several items in this area. · the Youth Crime Act will be a future agenda item · ash trays – this was discussed at the KDBA Entertainment Committee meeting and the idea of portable ash trays in the form of large pots filled with sand was suggested. Molly Green will contact the Region to purchase these pots. · Police attendance – several calls were made to Barry Zehr and no contact was made. Mark Yantzi will be meeting with him to arrange some type of representation 8. GOVERNANCE ISSUES The resolution regarding this issue submitted by DAC was slightly adjusted by council and was attached to the minutes from the December meeting. Mark Yantzi was at the Regional meeting and up-dated the Committee, but he warned that things are changing daily. Regional Council voted 14 – 7 in favour of asking the Province to assign an advisor to expedite the reform process. Discussions then took place as to what would happen if nothing is resolved. Various comments on what input we would have as a Committee, we need to look at how neighbourhoods can be brought into the downtown. Brenton Toderian commented that we should be careful, that we are not the only ones involved in the Governance issue. Nancy Brawley suggested we concentrate on our goals as a downtown community and that we need to stand up for the importance of the downtown issues. Howard Rotberg commented that the downtown is the “heart” of the city, and unless we stick together, we could be history. 5 GOVERNANCE ISSUES cont’d Trudy Beaulne expressed that access to representation and community based planning will be the heart of our (DAC’s) issues. This is what we can contribute to the governance issue, how we as a group, impact decisions being made. More discussions took place on the various views of what is the heart of the city, how this merger will affect us, as well, we discussed how other communities have handled similar mergers. It was agreed that more time should be set aside for discussion of this topic and our contributions. Mark Yantzi suggested that the next DAC meeting should be devoted entirely to this discussion, and that we do need more information from other communities who have successfully merged and what worked for them. 9.DAC VISION Howard Rotberg gave the following report. Compass Kitchener is the name given to “a vision and community strategic plan for a healthy community”. What is “a vision and community strategic plan?” It is a shared picture of the communities’ preferred future. A community vision expresses the values we hold and want reflected in our environment as well as in the economic, social and political life of our community. Developing a community vision will help us realize what we want to preserve in our community and what we would like to change. Once the community vision is created, a strategic plan will be prepared that outlines the steps needed to bring the vision closer to reality. The function of the plan is that it will function as an umbrella document capable of being used as a common agenda by City Council, administration, and the public in determining future priorities, partnerships and processes for designing and implementing specific action plans. What is a “healthy community?” A healthy community is one which balances the communities’ social, environmental and economic needs. It has been described as “a community in which all organizations from informal groups to governments are working effectively together to improve the quality of all people’s lives.” Howard also recommended two books worth reading on this topic, Changing Places, Rebuilding Community in Age of Sprawl by Carter Wilke and Better Not Bigger, How to Take Control of Urban Growth and Improve Your Community by Eden Fodor. 6 DAC VISION cont’d Howard then handed out a questionnaire by Compass Kitchener and asked that th they be returned by February 15, 2000. (see attached) Brenton Toderian also suggested several books of interest and said that he will prepare a reading list of various books on topics of downtown issues. 10. UPDATE BY DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT TEAM (City and KDBA) David Corks reported that the Gaukel Street upgrades project for the Bullas Nudes fountain originally started out at a budget of $35,000 and has now grown to $150,000. This would need to go to Council for review as part of the City’s budget. It was stated that this project could be done a little bit at a time. A motion was made that the expedition of the Gaukel Street project be put back into the City’s budget for the year 2000. Moved by:Brenton Toderian Seconded by:Tom Brennand CARRIED Molly Green reported on behalf of the KDBA, stating that the Christmas ornament promotion went very well. A total of 400 ornaments were sold! New faces at the KDBA… Darlene Chancey is the new Administrative Assistant and Nicole Schmidt is the new Business Liaison. Celebrating Our Successes night is coming up on February 29, 2000 at the Walper Terrace Hotel, hopefully everyone has filled out a nomination form. Banners with the Original City logo are being re-done. Molly will also distribute an event list of the downtown area. Peter Walberg asked Molly how the web page for the KDBA is doing. Molly reported that a consultant is working on a report that will advise us the number of “hits” the site has generated. It was then stated that DAC minutes could be put on this site. David Corks said he would check to see if this is already happening on the City’s web site. David Corks reported on the Forsyth building. The City has received an application for demolition, the building has been designated as a heritage site. One offer to purchase is to keep the building and re-use it for residential rental units, but the City would have to be in partnership with this idea. The deal has not closed yet. New furniture for King Street is coming, this includes new benches, planters and garbage cans. 7 UPDATE BY DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT TEAM (City and KDBA) cont’d Garbage pick-up along King Street is now done by the Region of Waterloo – we will try to meet with them to express our concerns for them to keep up our high standards for regular garbage pick-up. A motion for a resolution was put forth as follows: “That Council direct staff to undertake a façade restoration on the City owned property at 156 – 158 King St. W., Kitchener as recommended by Wayne Pearce, Loans/Incentive Coordinator, based on his estimate of $22,000.” Moved by:Denise Strong Seconded by:Anita Petsche-Good CARRIED It was requested that a future agenda item should be on façade improvements. 11. NEIGHBOURHOOD ASSOCIATION UPDATES Cedar-Hill There recently was a concern about increased criminal activities. Hopefully the police will be able to up-date us on these unlikely happenings and how to deal with them. Mill CourtlandTheir registration program is going well. They have several programs organized, pre-school (6), youth – age 7-15 (10) and adult/family (10) Mt. Hope/An up-coming meeting in January will have Police Chief BreithauptGravill come to Breithaupt Park to speak about crime and crimeprevention in the neighbourhood Civic CentreCollege St. will be under construction with new lighting being installed. As well, there is a proposal for a stop sign at Queen St. and Margaret Ave. Social PlanningSee attached Neighbourhood Associations “Networking” Meeting. 12. HOMELESSNESS UPDATE Trudy Beaulne informed us that a flyer was sent out in mid-December regarding an up-coming forum in February about homelessness. A brochure on registering will be sent out shortly for this forum, the cost is $15.00 8 Meeting adjourned LIST OF ATTACHMENTS 1. Map of Downtown and Surrounding Neighbourhoods 2. Committee Member Contact List 3. Compass Kitchener Questionnaire 4. Neighbourhood Association Networking Meeting 9