Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement March 13, 2019 calgary.ca | contact 311 03 Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement About this what we heard report This report summarizes the activities and results of engagement for the Centre City Plan Refresh project. It outlines the project, the purpose of the public engagement, the activities we did, and a summary of what we heard at the events. A full list of comments received through public engagement is included in this report. This report does not outline what has happened as a result of the public engagement. That summary will be published at a later date, once all engagement has been completed and project plans have been finalized. Project overview In 2007, based on extensive citizen input, City Council adopted the Centre City Plan, a vision document that describes what the Centre City could look like in 30 years. The Centre City Plan is a coordinated strategy document that pulls together the vision for the Centre City along with strategies and actions relating to land use planning, economic, cultural, and social development, and governance. With the approval of the adoption of the Centre City Plan (CPC2007-049), it included a recommendation for regular monitoring and reporting. In January 2017 the Centre City Plan was identified as one of 28 Council policies to be amended. It’s time to review and refresh the original Centre City Plan. Calgary’s Centre City is the area south of the Bow River (including Prince’s Island Park) from 17th Avenue Southwest and 14th Street Southwest, to the Elbow River. It also includes Downtown, Eau Claire, West End, West Connaught, Connaught Centre, Victoria Crossing Centre, East Victoria Crossing, East Village, Chinatown and Stampede Park area. (A map is contained in the Centre City Plan, 2007.) The purpose of this refresh project is to: affirm the current plan’s vision and principles; reassess the big-picture direction for the Centre City; identify actions to realize the vision; update the information in the Plan to align with other city policies such as the Municipal Development Plan and Centre City Guidebook; and eliminate overlap with other documents. Engagement was approached with the understanding that the plan need not be re-written; rather it will be updated or, “refreshed”, to reflect the current thinking within the Centre City. An update to the Centre City Plan is an opportunity to refocus Calgary’s energy and reinvigorate a commitment to success in the Centre City. 2/213 Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement Contents About this what we heard report 2 Project overview 2 Target audiences 6 Respect for diversity, inclusion and culture 7 Engagement overview What we asked 8 Event summary 9 Event Details 10 Early online engagement: Values, aspirations and concerns 10 Key stakeholder workshop #1: Vision and principles 10 Key stakeholder workshop #2: Big ideas, issues and actions 10 Public workshop: Vision, principles, big ideas, issues and actions 11 Pop-up engagements: Big ideas and actions 11 Additional online engagement: Vision, principles, big ideas, issues and actions 11 What we heard 12 What we heard: values, aspirations and concerns 12 Values (200 references overall) 12 Top values (over 20 references) 12 Less common values 12 Aspirations (126 references overall) 13 Top aspirations (over 20 references) 13 Less common aspirations 13 Concerns (233 references overall) 13 Top concerns (over 20 references) 13 Less common concerns 13 What we heard: the vision statement 14 Vision: content to keep 14 3/213 Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement Vision: content to remove 14 Vision: changes or additions 15 What we heard: the principles of The Plan 16 Principles: Are they still relevant? 16 Principles: explaining relevance in the context of today 17 Top themes overall 17 What we heard: big ideas, issues and actions 28 Big ideas, issues and actions: overall themes 28 Big ideas, issues and actions: snapshot of ideas 30 Principle 2: Put pedestrians first 31 Principle 3: Create great streets, places and buildings – for people 32 Principle 5: Ensure the Centre City remains and grows in reputation as a location of choice for business 34 Principle 6: Create and maintain a caring and safe Centre City environment 35 Principle 7: Create a lively, active and animated environment 36 Principle 8: Be a model of urban ecology 37 Next steps 38 Verbatim Comments 39 Values, aspirations and concerns. 39 Verbatim comments: The vision 106 Verbatim comments: The vision 108 What we heard: the principles 111 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 1: Build livable, inclusive and connected neighbourhoods 111 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 2: Put pedestrians first 117 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 3: Create great streets, places and buildings – for people 124 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 4: Support and enhance the Centre City as Calgary’s centre of culture, information exchange and communication 130 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 5: Ensure the Centre City remains and grows in reputation as a location of choice for business 135 4/213 Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 6: Create and maintain a caring and safe Centre City environment 142 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 7: Create a lively, active and animated environment 149 Verbatim comments: The principles Principle 8: Be a model of urban ecology 154 Missing principles and recommendations for new ones 160 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions General comments 165 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 1: Build livable, inclusive and connected neighbourhoods 192 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 2: Put pedestrians first 194 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 3: Create great streets, places and buildings – for people 198 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 4: Support and enhance the Centre City as Calgary’s centre of culture, information exchange and communication 200 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 5: Ensure the Centre City remains and grows in reputation as a location of choice for business 203 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 6: Create and maintain a caring and safe Centre City environment 204 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 7: Create a lively, active and animated environment 207 Verbatim comments: Ideas, issues and actions Principle 8: Be a model of urban ecology 210 5/213 Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement Target audiences The targeted audience for this engagement was divided into three primary categories: 1. Key stakeholders: Centre City landowners, civic partners, organizations, associations, and representative groups. These groups are involved at a deeper level due to their level of interest and the representative nature of their work. 2. Calgarians interested in the Centre City: For the public workshop, participants were asked to register and identify as one of the following groups: living in the Centre City, working in the Centre City, spending time and money in the Centre City or, interested in the future of the Centre City. In addition, all Calgarians were invited to participate online and at the six pop-up engagement events. 3. Internal stakeholders: Internal stakeholders were involved in pre-engagement workshops, and are involved in the review of the public input received. A small number of seats were made available for City staff at the two Major Stakeholder workshops. 6/213 Centre City Plan Refresh What We Heard: 2018 public engagement Respect for diversity, inclusion and culture The engagement approach intended to be respectful of the diversity of people living, working and spending time in the Centre City. To make our engagement more inclusive a number of steps were taken: Due to the relevance of Chinatown to the Centre City Plan, Chinese-speaking residents were specifically targeted in marketing, communication and events. The approach was informed by a preliminary meeting with key stakeholders and leaders from within Chinatown. Efforts included: o Tri-lingual (Mandarin, Cantonese, and English) interpretation was provided at the pop-up event in Chinatown. Roughly 50% of participants took advantage of this service and expressed gratitude for us being there with language support. Interpretation was offered at key stakeholder workshops but was not required. o Translated advertisements ran two weeks prior to the public engagement workshop in Canadian Chinese Times, Trend Weekly, Oriental Weekly and Sing Tao. o Translated posters were on community billboards in Chinatown for four weeks beginning the week of September 4, 2018 to advertise the public workshop on September 26, 2018, from 6 to 9 p.m. and online engagement opportunities. o Translated content was provided on WeChat (Mandarin language social media channel) in advance of the public workshop and online engagement opportunities. o Requested that the Chinatown Community Association and Business Improvement Area organizations share engagement information through their member/resident channels. Pop-up events took place in six locations, including: Bow Valley College where there is a notably high proportion of newcomers; the Kirby Centre lobby to reach older Calgarians; and at a recommended location in Chinatown. The Community Social Worker