Six Villages CIP - Preserving character

NRU
Nov. 18, 2015
By Leah Wong

The Town of Caledon is seeking to revitalize and beautify its six villages with a plan that recognizes each community’s character.

The Six Villages Community Improvement Plan creates a toolbox of financial incentive programs that can be accessed by property owners and tenants in Alton, Caledon Village, Cheltenham, Inglewood, Mono Mills and Palgrave. The plan outlines separate visions, action plans and design criteria for each village, keeping in mind their individual characteristics and geography.

“The approach was to go out and see each of the villages, meet with the community members and then come up with plans that addressed the character that was there and [then] looked to enhance and revitalize it,” Six Villages CIP project manager Paula Strachan told NRU.

Wards 3 and 4 councillor Nick deBoer said the plan seeks to encourage redevelopment and reinvestment as a way to attract new visitors to the villages. He hopes improvements will be “eye-catching” so drivers passing through the villages will be encouraged to stop and look around.

“We [need to] use what we’ve got to make some improvements within the villages for everybody’s benefit,” deBoer told NRU. “The retailers are happy to have any kind of assistance because they realize eye appeal and something catchy to get people to stop is the secret.”

These improvements will be achieved through a set of financial programs that will be used in all the villages. While the financial tools are the same, the action plans have been tailored to recognize the villages’ differences. For example, the plan seeks to make Alton the focal point for tourism in the town through a parking strategy and public realm investments. Alternatively, Mono Mills serves, in part, as a rest stop for drivers on Highway 9, so its action plan focuses on vehicle and pedestrian safety.

“How each [program] would be best implemented within each of the villages will be up to those that live there. There are a range of opportunities,” Caledon development manager Rob Hughes told NRU. “What works best for each village remains to be seen from the financial side.”

The Six Villages plan is the town’s third CIP-Bolton was approved by council in April 2009 and Caledon East in January 2014. MMM Group served as the consultant for all three plans, and ATA Architects was retained for Six Villages. As staff and the consultants had previously worked together, there were opportunities to pick up on lessons learned through the implementation of past plans.

“The contexts are different between Bolton, Caledon East and the Six Villages, however, the programs and the experiences the town’s had in implementing the programs needed to be considered in the development of a new CIP,” MMM planning and design vice-president Chris Tyrell told NRU.

Hughes said a similar methodology was taken to the preparation of all three plans, thus building on the success of previous plans—the Caledon East CIP was recognized by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute last year.

“When we moved to the villages we wanted to make sure we didn’t approach them all the same, because this [plan] is about character building… and each of the villages have their own [character],” said Strachan.

She added that through the Caledon East plan, staff learned that it was important to have both an incentive program and a strategy for public realm improvements.

Council was also able to test the waters and learn from the experience of the past two CIPs. Through his experience, deBoer said he has a better grasp of the intent of a CIP and what types of improvements it is targeting.

This has been important in explaining the plan to residents as the question he most regularly hears is ‘what is the intent of the CIP?’

One focus that has remained consistent throughout all three plans is the relationship of the plans to public health objectives. Tyrell said working towards Peel Region’s healthy community goals is an important dimension of Caledon’s plans.

Given the location of Caledon’s villages within the Greenbelt, Tyrell said connectivity and access to parks, open space, recreation areas and trail were a key consideration in the plan development process.

DeBoer said he sees opportunities to direct people off the trails running through Caledon and towards the villages with improved signage and wayfinding. If people knew what services were located in a nearby town they may be encouraged to stop for a coffee or lunch.

Last week the town held a statutory public meeting on the plan, which ended its public consultation. Hughes said staff will present a report to council for approval early next year.