Community engagement on three Mill Site concept plans is now complete.
The project planning team has received significant new input through the online and the open house forums that were held over the past few weeks. We heard from over 500 people in person, and 270 through the online survey.
We asked the public to weigh in on three different mixed-use concepts for the Mill Site. Each concept aimed to respond to direction and objectives for the Mill Site as outlined by the City’s North End Plan process. The three plans demonstrated various ideas for how the community vision could be achieved and the public was asked to provide feedback on each of those plans – pros and cons – to help the planning team better understand priorities.
“It was an engagement exercise that was meant to help us understand priorities, and we certainly received a lot of interesting, varied and helpful feedback.”
“It’s still early in the process and we asked the community to provide feedback on each concept without feeling the need to vote for any one plan over the others”, says Joost Bakker of Dialog Design. “It was an engagement exercise that was meant to help us understand priorities and we certainly received a lot of interesting, varied and helpful feedback”, he adds.
Property owner Holar Developments wants to create an ‘Okanagan-authentic’ mixed-use waterfront neighbourhood that provides amenities and a waterfront experience for the whole community and that contributes to the City’s development priorities for housing, alternative transportation options, environmental sustainability, commercial services and job space.
The next steps for the planning team will be an in-depth review of the feedback received and development of a new plan that further reflects the community’s perspectives. The next version of a plan is expected to be completed in the Spring when the Mill Site team will return to the community for another round of input.