$10.5M plan to revitalize Sydney's downtown endorsed by council

Cape Breton regional council is endorsing a $10.5 million plan to revitalize Sydney's downtown core and a municipal steering committee has been tasked withdeterminingwhat steps are needed to implement it.

The committeewill report to council in time for next year's budget deliberations.

If the work goes ahead, it's expected to take 10 years to complete. The project is based on a study done by consultant Ekistics Planning and Design, which was presented at a council meeting Tuesday night.

Here are some of the details:

Parking

The study proposes several changes to parking in the downtown. One is the introduction of smart parking meters where drivers could pay using their phones.

Ekistics president Rob Leblanc such technology could also allow the municipality to charge different parking rates at different times of the day.

The study also advocates for upgrades to the central parking hub in the Dorchester area. Signage pointing drivers to parking areas should also be improved.

"It's a distribution problem, not a quantity of parking," Leblanc said.

Charlotte Street redevelopment

The bulk of the spending ($7.5 million) would be on the revitalization of Charlotte Street between Dorchester and Townsend streets. The study proposes several significant changes.

One is creating a public space at the corner of Wentworth Street called Charlotte Square. It could also be used in the evenings to project films and televised sporting events on the side of a building.

Another part of the plan is to create pedestrian "bump outs." Those would narrow the amount of street that pedestrians need to cross and also provide places for greenery.

The study advocates for more seating, better pedestrian lighting and capitalizing on "lost spaces" like the wide sidewalk in front of the Scotiabank. There's also plans for a connection between Charlotte Street and the Highland Arts Theatre.

"What I really love about this is that feeling," Coun. Kendra Coombes said of the study. "I am someone who loves to walk around the downtown, I'm somebody who loves to shop in the downtownand so to see my vision of what downtown is come to life in front of me is very exciting."

Vacant lots

Leblanc said that along George Street through the downtown there are up to 10 corners where there are no buildings.

The study foresees some downtown parking lots being filled in with 30 to 40-unit residential buildings.

"We start by recognizing we need a lot more people living downtown and we set growth targets for 300 new units and the hope is that with those new people living downtown that's going to result in new restaurants, new businesses and all kinds of other infill."

The plan also calls for other improvement to George Street, including a series of "linear parks."

Say goodbye to one-ways

The plan advocates for turning one-way systems on several smaller streets into two-way traffic systems. Traffic counters were used to gather data, which was put into traffic simulation programs.

Leblanc said the conclusion was that making side streets two-ways would have a "significant impact" on downtown traffic.