The community has a lot of opinions as it relates to downtown Sudbury.
“I would like to see a welcoming spirit,” Craig G. told Sudbury.com during a public consultation session the city hosted at Tom Davies Square on Wednesday afternoon.
Craig, who requested his last name be limited to an initial, said that he works downtown and that some people don’t want to visit the area due to its homeless community.
“I like the idea of, there’s a beauty and pride aspect to most of these things, and I think that with a little pride and upkeep people are able to treat places with more respect,” he said.
Susan Levesque also shared this sentiment, saying that “optics” around places like Memorial Park turn people away from downtown.
Levesque is the fundraising and fund development officer for the Art Gallery of Sudbury, which is slated to take residents through the bottom four storeys of 199 Larch St. as part of the Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square project.
“I’d like to see more public art outside, more sculptures,” she told Sudbury.com while reviewing information boards city staff put up for Wednesday’s meeting, on which community members were encouraged to post sticky notes with their recommendations.
Wednesday’s two public consultation sessions will factor into the Downtown Master Plan review, which strives to update the long-term vision for the first time since it was first adopted in 2012.
The update was first triggered by city council members during its 10-year anniversary in 2022, with money set aside for the effort in the city’s 2023 budget.
The update is currently in the draft phase, with numerous ideas being presented.
In Memorial Park, for example, the following is proposed:
- Public art
- The Brady stairway elements are expended along Brady and through Memorial Park
- Salt-resistant trees along Brady Street to the Minto Street intersection
- Enhanced entryway features to the park
- A walking path along the northern edge of the park
- Refurbished planting zones
- Blue light emergency boxes to enhance pedestrian safety
- Lighting features within the park
- Tree pruning and landscaping to enhance visibility
City senior planner Ed Landry said an online survey would be available on the city’s online consultation page until July 16.
He anticipates bringing the plan back to city council sometime in September and seeing it adopted by the end of the year.
Much of the plan is carryover from the initial plan city council adopted in 2012, with updates to reflect such things as the upcoming event centre and Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square projects to be built downtown.
With these projects on the horizon, Downtown Sudbury BIA executive director Jeff MacIntyre said the master plan update is timely.
It’d be “a major mistake” to not accompany the projects with an updated vision for their surrounding neighborhood, he said. “You have to wrap that around and make sure all the partners in the community, the developers, the (business improvement areas) and businesses are aligned on what the potential is for that.”
Those communities that pair fresh visions with the construction of event centres are those that get the most out of them, he said, citing a renewal of downtown London as an example.
McEwen School of Architecture founding director Terrance Galvin said that residential units should factor more heavily into the long-term downtown vision.
“Everywhere you go in Montreal in different neighbourhoods it’s people, people, people,” he said. “They all live in those neighbourhoods, they’re not commuting from somewhere else into downtown, certainly not the majority.”
By encouraging more residential density in downtown Sudbury through incentives, he said the city could drastically improve foot traffic in the neighbourhood, which area businesses need.
“Mixed use has to happen,” he said. “That’s something I hope the new Downtown Master Plan considers and plans for.”
Past Downtown Master Plan achievements include such things as Place des Arts, while one of the most recent achievements was last year’s rebuilt Nelson Street active transportation bridge.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.