Made in Richmond Hill: Public realm master plan

NRU
June 10, 2015
By Edward LaRusic

Richmond Hill council is asking residents about their vision of the town’s public realm. It wants to know what it should look like, how the spaces should be used and how it might reflect the town’s identity.

Richmond Hill mayor Dave Barrow told NRU that as the city has grown, the town has been collecting more and more parks, trails, streetscapes and urban squares. What’s needed now is a way to ensure that each of these spaces properly serves the community.

“It’s about the types of spaces that people want to have. Is it people gathering places? Are they all green, or active?” Barrow said. “We feel that it’s important that we create some choices for people, that we create places where people can connect, to create vibrancy.”

Next week the town is launching its first community consultation on its public realm master plan. When completed, it is intended to give guidance to the city on how to transform its public spaces into attractive spaces that both serve their communities and reflect Richmond Hill’s identity. It will address everything from local and regional streets, parks, urban squares, natural areas, to public buildings, trails, walkways and cycling paths in the town. The document will complement the urban design guidelines the town created in 2013 for private developments and how they transition to public spaces.

Staff will identify and categorize every public space in Richmond Hill then develop high level design guidelines to help shape each category of public space. These will include principles, uses and building materials.

“Ultimately, we are evolving as a town, and we’re looking to achieve a vision called ‘a new kind of urban.’ That is the slogan on our new official plan,” urban design manager and public realm master plan project manager Joanne Leung told NRU.

“How do we create a community that is both intensifying, sustainable and a good place for residents to live without them feeling that intensification is depriving them of an actual good living standard and amenities? [The public realm master plan] is a very important component. This is the first step.”

Leung said that one of the benefits of the master plan is that it could open up opportunities to obtain additional funding to help transform Richmond Hill’s public spaces. She noted that York Region provides funding to support streetscape enhancements as an example of funding that a master plan could help secure.

“If we can get a vision of what we want, [then] when there’s opportunity we can apply for funding to help achieve that vision. Without that vision, we will be caught at times where we might have an opportunity to get funding, but we might not know what we will need.”

Barrow said he’d like the master plan to be a reflection of the feedback the town receives from residents.
“I would like the [residents] to come to the draft plan and say ‘I see my words, I see my ideas.’ We’re not going in with ‘here’s a plan, how do you like it?’ We’re going in with ‘here’s what we’d like to do, how would you like it done?’”

The city has engaged consulting firm Brook McIlroy to prepare the master plan, including the creation of design principles. Leung said that a draft master plan is anticipated to be available for public comment in the fall, with the final master plan completed before the end of the year.