Town of Sundre officials are seeking direction from residents for the town's Highway 27 Corridor Enhancement Project.
The first public open house was held last week and another one is set for June 22. As well, a workshop was held for the business community last week, which was led by the project consultant Genivar Inc.
The goal of the project is to beautify the corridor and be “a town that cares about itself and a place that people want to be”, say town officials.
“They're gathering information from public members and businesses through Sundre, to gain a direction for what the community would like to see in the future,” said Kim Galloway, the town's economic development officer.
“So how Sundre's going to look, how Sundre's businesses can present themselves and we're going to identify opportunities that we can implement in the future,” she said.
The project aims to identify elements including benches, planters, decorative lighting and garbage cans.
It also aims to address parking issues downtown and potential storefront improvements. A new signage program to support businesses that don't have highway frontage will be a part of the project as well.
The plan is subject to Alberta Transportation regulations, so re-constructing downtown is not an option.
However, town officials believe that using visual elements to better define the area and slow traffic through the area would make a difference.
The workshop attracted members from the chamber of commerce, local businesses and landowners, but the public open house only attracted five people.
Town officials are hoping for a better turnout at the open house later this month, where they will present the direction of the project according to the feedback from last week's public engagement sessions.
“Specifically they're looking at, along the corridor, the issues and opportunities for basically design, functionality, walkability, those types of things,” she said.
“Branding for specific areas and the overall corridor, signage options, designing the downtown, methods and opportunities to improve parking and streetscape design elements,” she said are other things town officials are looking at in the project.
The project is a second step to a similar project town officials were looking at a few years ago, she said.
After the open house this month, town officials will incorporate the feedback received from the public into a report. The plan is for council to approve the report by the end of 2013 and then town officials would move forward with the action plan in 2014.
“The desired outcome once we have this report is so that we can create the actual plan to go forward with making the changes in the corridor,” she said.
“The purpose of making those enhancements through the corridor is so that our business and community create a more welcoming, engaging area for both residents and visitors alike.”
The action plan will guide what town officials will be doing and where, how long it will take to complete and how much will need to be budgeted each year to accomplish it.
