After months of discussions and public consultations, a new plan for revitalizing the Osoyoos town centre was received by town council on Monday.
Not so much a blueprint, the Osoyoos Town Centre Renewal Plan is more a menu of ideas that council and business groups can choose to act on over the next 20 years.
“Leadership and partnerships are critical,” said Michael von Hausen, president of MVH Urban Planning and Design Inc., as he presented slides of highlights at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting.
At the regular council meeting in the afternoon, council voted to accept the full report as information.
An artist’s illustration shows the potential for a street plaza on half a block of 85th Street next to BMO. (Calum Srigley for MVH Urban Planning and Design Inc.)
The plan followed workshops aimed at stakeholders where ideas were tossed out and then winnowed down to a list of a Top 10 Action Plan Items. A workshop in June was sparsely attended, while one in September drew much larger participation.
The focus of the plan is to make the town centre a place where people want to spend time, and along with that spend money at downtown businesses.
“Cars don’t buy things,” von Hausen reminded council. “People buy things.”
The ideas presented make the downtown more pedestrian friendly, also providing public spaces for people to meet, socialize and enjoy the atmosphere.
It suggests outdoor patios along Main Street on the sidewalk area with a removable boardwalk cutting out into a couple of parking spaces, which would still be available for bicycle and motorcycle parking.
An illustration by designer Callum Srigley, for example, shows Jojo’s Café using the entire sidewalk for outdoor seating, with an external boardwalk jutting out through a couple of parking spaces. The boardwalk could be removed in the winter.
The most striking idea is the closure of a half block on 85th Street beside BMO to create a street plaza with shade structures, trees, outdoor patios, movable chairs and tables.
“This plaza would create a centre meeting place and celebration space for the community,” said the report. “It could be programmed with special elements and accommodate the Farmers Market and other special events.”
Another suggestion is for “conversation corners,” using the recently installed “bump-outs” or “bulges,” as the report calls them.
“The recently improved and safer pedestrian crossings and associated sidewalk extensions (bulges) offer an opportunity for further pedestrian improvements such as seating, … public art, information and planting to facilitate more meeting places and informal conversations in the town centre,” said the report, adding that these would be done without compromising pedestrian safety.
But while these physical improvements would be the most visually transformative, the report also contains less glamourous, but arguably more essential recommendations for revitalizing the downtown.
These include ideas for business retention and recruitment, encouraging infill residential development on the outside edges of Main Street and using wayfinding and signage to communicate important landmarks and amenities such as parking.
The plan looks at the business mix, recommending more active Main Street uses, with professional and service businesses being encouraged on 74th and 78th Avenues as part of a “greater downtown.”
It provides illustrations of examples of how some of these ideas have been adopted in other communities.
Osoyoos has an advantage over some other communities in that the downtown flows seamlessly into the lakeshore, without barriers such as railways tracks getting in the way, von Hausen pointed out.
Gina MacKay, Town of Osoyoos director of planning and development, noted that council may have other ideas not included in the plan.
She added that the discussions didn’t include a lot of representation from businesses on the portion of Main Street extending between Shoppers Drug Mart and AG Foods and she said staff would reach out to those businesses.
“It sounds really exciting,” said Mayor Sue McKortoff before council voted to accept the report as information. “We look forward with our planner to getting some of these things underway.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
