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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDowntown Advisory - 2000-02-10DOWNTOWN ADVISORY COMMITTEE February 10, 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, Howard Marr, Nancy Brawley, Anita Petsche-Good, Peggy Walshe, Donna Kuehl, Ruth Tomlinson, Peter Walberg, Howard Rotberg, Barry Zehr, Doug Hoch, Debbie Schlichter, David Corks Others:Bill Hill, Patricia Bacon, Molly Green, Catherine Heal, Kathy Matias Regrets:Brenton Toderian, Chris Cowie, Neil Carver, Mike Peng, Trudy Beaulne, Regis Coladipietro, Denise Shelbourne, Mary Drandzyk, Tom Brennand, Denise Strong 1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA – February 10, 2000 An adjustment was made to add Patricia Bacon, on behalf of the Planning Department, to discuss drive throughs in the Downtown. Moved by:Karen Taylor-Harrison Seconded by:Ruth Tomlinson CARRIED At this point of the meeting, Mark Yantzi suggested we go around the table and reintroduce ourselves, as there were several new faces at today’s meeting. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – January 13, 2000 It was moved that the minutes from the January 13, 2000 meeting be approved. Moved by:Karen Taylor-Harrison Seconded by:Howard Marr CARRIED 3. “OUT OF THE COLD” PROGRAM – Bill Hills Mr. Bill Hills spoke to the Committee about the “Out of the Cold” program. It was started in the Kitchener-Waterloo area in February 1999 and consists of 400 volunteers, students, seniors, and adults (a copy of a volunteer’s letter is attached). The clientele are homeless people who live on the streets. Each person that visits the shelters are quite individual, they range from pregnant 1 “OUT OF THE COLD” PROGRAM cont’d ladies, to alcoholics, to epileptics, to people with chronic depression. The only thing they all have in common is that they don’t have a permanent place to stay. The “Out of the Cold” program’s mission is to provide a warm safe place to stay overnight, a good dinner, fellowship, breakfast and they also send them off with lunch. They are a non-judgmental group, which view themselves as a band-aid solution, an “on the spot fix” which helps these people for one night. The volunteers believe this should be a short-term program, that the real solution should be a permanent shelter in the downtown which would be organized by volunteers and have the support of the community. The program has grown from originally 1 site to now having 4 sites – St. Louis, First United and St. John’s churches all in Waterloo and Trinity United Church in Kitchener. The program’s ultimate goal is to have 7 sites, one site open for each night of the week. This is run as a winter program only. To-date, the program has served over 1200 guests for dinner and have had 513 guests stay overnight. On an average night they could have 23 stay for dinner and 9 stay overnight, but the numbers vary from site to site. Karen Taylor-Harrison commended Bill for his enthusiasm and dedication for this program and how it has grown over the years. Donna Kuehl asked why Bill thought a downtown location for a permanent shelter is needed. Bill explained that most of the people are here in the downtown area already and that it would make the most sense. Debbie Schlichter advised that at a Regional level there is a review of available shelters in the area, focusing on 4 shelters per diem funding. The Region’s hope is to get a better sense of what is needed, and look at the existing shelters such as the House of Friendship, Mary’s Place, and the Salvation Army. 4. DOWNTOWN DRIVE-THROUGHS – Patricia Bacon Patricia Bacon advised that staff were directed by Council to look at ways to regulate drive-throughs. Staff prepared a draft zoning by-law and design guidelines, which were tabled with Council. Staff consulted with both resident and industry representatives and a working group was formed with the business industry since there was a lot of interest. Patricia advised that she was here specifically to discuss the effects of the proposed zoning by-law on the downtown. The proposed zoning by-law originally circulated prohibits all drive-throughs in the downtown. She advised that through the consultation process, staff have decided to prohibit restaurant and convenience retail drive-throughs only. She advised that the prohibition in the downtown supports the City’s vision of the downtown, which she summarized 2 DOWNTOWN DRIVE-THROUGHS cont’d as high density/intensity development to promote a pedestrian oriented environment through “built form”. Peggy Walshe asked what the difference between restaurant and banking drive- throughs was. Patricia responded that both restaurant and convenience retail drive-throughs take up a considerable amount of land to facilitate the high parking requirements and large number of stacking spaces needed. Restaurant and convenience retail drive-throughs require 13 stacking spaces, whereas banks require 3. To facilitate the high number of stacking spaces on site, buildings are forced to be set back from the property line. The desired built form would consist of a streetscape with unbroken building facades, frequent pedestrian entrances, one or two story facades occupied by commercial, retail or restaurant uses located at the property line adjacent to sidewalks with office or residential above. She advised that the traffic implications are significantly different as well. Karen Taylor-Harrison expressed concern with permitting drive-through banks downtown. She felt that there was not enough parking as it is for banks and questioned how this would be affected if a drive-through was added. Patricia noted that there are currently no drive-throughs located in the downtown and it may be that it would be difficult for an existing bank to put in a drive-through. Patricia also noted that staff has not experienced problems with over stacking for drive-through banks. She noted that another factor, which led to the change, is that historically, banks are viewed as a corner stone use in the downtown. When people are looking for a bank, they look downtown. It was noted that the review came out of suburban concerns. Discussions took place on various views/opinions of the topic. The Committee decided to put forth the following resolution: We support the City’s vision of the downtown to strive for high density/intensity development, which promotes a pedestrian oriented environment through built form and for this reason we do not support drive-throughs in general in the downtown. Moved by:Anita Petsche-Good Seconded by:Howard Rotberg CARRIED 3 DOWNTOWN DRIVE-THRUS cont’d Discussions also took place as to whether or not we as an advisory board can contact the Chamber of Commerce and question their involvement now with the downtown drive-through topic, when they haven’t been involved in past issues concerning the downtown. Mark Yantzi suggested we send a resolution of our concerns to them. ACTION: David Corks will write to the Chamber on behalf of the Committee regarding this concern. 5. GOVERNANCE Mark Yantzi advised that there is no up-date to report from the Regional Government at this time. Howard Rotberg made a number of points regarding this issue. He was afraid that the objective of the change would only be economic efficiency, not good community development. He also said that the current transportation planning thinking favours wide roads and easy traffic access to all sites and this is the enemy of good urban form. He suggested that the livability of cities is at stake, and may be sacrificed for purely economic goals. Howard commented on a conversation he had with Ken Seiling from the Region of Waterloo, who suggested that one large administrative unit can better choose sites for new land uses as opposed to the current thinking, where cities are restrained by their current urban boundaries. He summarized by saying cities should advocate smaller, neighbourhood community based urban forms. Karen Taylor-Harrison responded that City Council was not generally receptive of neighbourhood community issues and believed that the public does want economic efficiency. She said only a minority of Kitchener Councillors support Howard’s view and she believes the majority opts for unification. Karen also questioned how we raise the consciousness level to the average person and how do we get the people to speak up. Karen expressed that public support is needed at City Council meetings and suggested we should get together as group and show up at council to express our concern for downtown issues, i.e. 156 – 158 King St. façade. Howard Rotberg added that he was generally critical of the media coverage of the downtown and that downtown issues are not being communicated to the Province. 4 GOVERNANCE cont’d Donna Kuehl added that the Association of Neighbourhoods will be submitting a letter regarding the governance issues of the people’s hopes and fears of a possible “mega city” to the Region (see attached). Discussions then took place as to the Mayor’s attachment regarding amalgamation to minutes. Anita Petsche-Good said she likes the Mayor’s statement regarding the governance issues and also supported Howard Rotberg’s view and suggested that the city should take some action in this matter. Howard Marr said that the Mayor’s statement should have supported the downtown directly. He quoted concerns of downtown merchants regarding how bad uses affect the good uses on King St. Howard Rotberg suggested that the big box retailers, drive-through restaurants and cars are the enemies of good urban form. The Downtown Advisory Committee should speak up if Council approves public expenditures that are anti- downtown. Nancy Brawley said that DAC repeats its support of basic downtown issues, but the support seldom goes beyond the meeting room. We need a forum to bring these matters to the public and the political decision making level. Nancy also said that DAC is seen only as a small lobby group, whereas, in fact it represents a much larger view. Howard Rotberg agreed and said we have to make sure our lobbying is effective and suggested DAC act specifically on one chosen issue. Peter Walberg said that up-town Waterloo showed foresight in the plans they have formulated to-date. It is pedestrian oriented with strategic anchors. Peggy suggested we take a look at Waterloo’s example of their planning and vision. The Committee was advised that DAC’s resolution for the façade program at 156 – 158 King St. was lost at a special council meeting on February 7, 2000, but Karen Taylor-Harrison introduced a motion to reconsider this façade program at st the Feb. 21 council meeting and strongly urged DAC’s support at this meeting. Catherine Heal said we need to educate the public and students about the plans for the downtown and suggested the Compass Kitchener report can be used to show the amount of public support for downtown issues. 6. UPDATE BY DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT TEAM (City and KDBA) 5 Molly Green reminded the Committee of the up-coming event, “Celebrating Our Success” evening on Tuesday, February 29, 2000 at the Walper Terrace Hotel. 7. NEIGHBOURHOOD ASSOCIATION UPDATES Ruth Tomlinson reported that the Mill-Courtland Neighbourhood Association is hosting a winter skating party (see the attached). 8. HOMELESSNESS UPDATE Debbie Schlichter reminded everyone that the forum on the homeless is Friday, February 18, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. at the Waterloo Recreational Centre. Posters and brochures for this event have been sent out and Debbie encouraged DAC members to attend. Meeting adjourned. LIST OF ATTACHMENTS 1. “Out of the Cold” volunteer letter 2. Neighbourhood Associations “Networking” Meeting information sheet 3. Mill-Courtland Neighbourhood Association Winter Skating Party flyer 4. Reading List – Brenton Toderian 6