Businesslife

WORKLIFE | COLUMN

businesslife

WITH STEPHEN UTZ

54

SPIRITED RETAIL 50 | BLOGGING BIZ 52 | IN CHARGE 56 worklife

MEET THE MOVERS, SHAKERS AND BUSINESS MAKERS

DOWNTOWN VISION

“A revitalized downtown has more people living, shopping and spending money there. Businesses stay open in our downtown. Residents are proud of downtown Airdrie. It is an important part of Airdrie’s brand, identity and economic development.”

- Council’s statement of success for the Strategic Priority of Downtown Revitalization

Conceptual image by Shugarman Architecture and Design

The public response to the Downtown Visioning exercise in 2017 was simple: make downtown better. Council’s statement of success for the Strategic Priority of Downtown Revitalization spoke directly to those public aims – acting as the North Star for the Draft Downtown Plan released in February.

Our downtown provides economic and development opportunities that exist nowhere else in Airdrie. Our analysis shows that the servicing capacity for downtown can accommodate a minimum of either 5,300 new residents or 8,800 jobs – or a combination. To put this in perspective, the residential and employment areas in King’s Heights and Kingsview combine for a total of 7,300 residents and jobs. This level of development required 16.5 kilometres of roads and 18.5 kilometres of pipe at considerable expense, and with ongoing maintenance costs. Downtown requires no further capital upgrades and no additional maintenance costs to achieve a similar result.

In short, the revitalization of our downtown provides an opportunity that we can’t afford to miss.

The objective of the Draft Downtown Plan is to accelerate the pace of redevelopment in our downtown. The plan puts forward a number of potential actions and incentives that can give it a competitive advantage within the region. Those competitive advantages serve to attract development and revitalize our downtown, creating a net-positive return to the taxpayer. The plan anticipates that redevelopment worth $65 million or more is possible within the next 10 years.

That alone shows why we can, and should, think differently about our downtown.

It’s not just a central location or where we gather for AirdrieFEST; downtown is the location that makes the most sense in which to invest, to nurture, and to show off to the world. It is a place worthy of our love.

The Draft Downtown Plan is based on making Downtown Airdrie the place that people love. There are a considerable number of issues facing our downtown and it is going to take collective work to achieve the redevelopment objectives. But in these challenging times, it makes sense to focus our energy on our best economic and social opportunities – many of which exist right here in our downtown.

If you haven’t read the draft plan yet, I encourage you to visit airdrie.ca/downtown. The plan remains in evolution until adopted by council and I welcome you to email me with your thoughts via downtown@airdrie.ca

There is no time like the present to seize the opportunity that lies before us. life