Wednesday (Sept. 23) evening, the District of Kitimat held a public open house for community members to come see their conceptual plans for a downtown Kitimat revitalization project.
Colin Brown, a planner with the District, said that they had been working on discussing things with the public before the pandemic hit. Now, they want to start coming back to the public with a clear vision, even if the plan is still in the idea phase, because they want to show the public that it isn’t just plans this time around, they are going to actually be implementing ideas and changes moving forward.
“We often frame this as, it’s a conceptual plan. It gives us a framework from which future decisions are made,” Brown said. “Really the time-frame of the vision and the concepts in here could be as many as 10, 15, 20, 25 years, for some of this. We are really looking for opportunities for some, we call them ‘quick wins.’ So in the next year or two, we need to get some projects moving.”
Right now, Brown said the plans are in the very conceptual stages and nothing has been approved yet. Their goal with this plan is to give the public and Council an idea of what could be done to downtown Kitimat, so that the public can bring feedback that they can hope to integrate as the plan moves forward.
“This opportunity here…we’re really looking forward to hearing what the public has to say,” Brown said. “Because it’s some big moves, some big ideas here, but we’re also hearing that it’s time for change. It’s time to move forward with some of these ideas.”
A virtual open house will be held on the District of Kitimat’s website Thursday (Sept. 24) evening, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and more information about the plan can be found on the District’s website.
To hear more about the new Downtown Master Plan from Brown and other District workers, as well as from fellow community members, read the Oct. 1 edition of the Kitimat Northern Sentinel.
READ MORE: District of Kitimat releases Haisla Bridge Replacement Project overview
READ MORE: Kitimat resident wants better District response to front yard sinkholes
clare.rayment@northernsentinel.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter