THUNDER BAY – Plans to transform Thunder Bay’s north core to offer more space for pedestrians, patios, and events are resonating with the public, says the project team working on the redesign.
Staff with the city and consultant Brook McIlroy set up a pop-up booth in the downtown Wednesday, displaying draft plans, offering information, and collecting feedback from passersby.
Proposed designs from the team working on the city’s Reimagining North Core Streetscapes project will come before city council for approval in phases, beginning later this year.
While acknowledging some concerns over how changes will impact drivers, leaders with the project team said their plans are based on overwhelming public support.
“What we’ve heard from the public has been really positive – people are excited about what’s happening,” said Albert Viljoen, an associate with Brook McIlroy. “Through the public consultations, we’ve asked people if they’re opposed to walking a block to get to where they want to be, to really offset providing all these beautiful wide, planted boulevards where people can thrive.”
The vast majority of those who have weighed in so far say that’s a worthy trade-off.
Of around 600 respondents to an online survey conducted earlier this year, over 90 per cent favoured more space for pedestrians in the downtown, the team has reported, while on-street parking ranked last on a list of priorities for downtown streets.
The team has worked with a traffic modelling consultant to model impacts of the designs on traffic flow and parking capacity, Viljoen said, with reassuring results.
“We’re not removing cars from the downtown core, we’re just shifting them outside to really offer a vibrant space where people become the focus, as opposed to vehicles,” he said.
Draft plans for the rebuild would reduce Red River Road, Cumberland Street, and Water Street from four to two lanes in parts of the core.
Park Avenue and Van Norman Street would become one-way streets in the core, adding angled parking along with other side streets.
The work will be conducted in 2022-2023 as the city replaces aging water and sewer mains in the area.
The changes will open up possibilities for a transformation of how public spaces are used in the downtown, said Guy Walter, a landscape architect with the city and project lead.
“It’s going to be monumental,” he said. “The traditional street we have, everybody’s contained to a small sidewalk, and vehicular traffic dominates the landscape.”
“We’re going to be looking at a pedestrian-centred downtown – we want to get people walking between blocks, across the street, shutting down streets more comfortably.”
The team has developed “fairly firm” preliminary cost estimates for the project, Walter said, but wasn’t ready to share details before the figures are finalized for presentation to city council.
The city is also examining opportunities for provincial and federal support. The redesign’s focus on walkability, economic development of the downtown, and sustainability align with government funding priorities, said Walter.
“There’s a big push to really get people out in the street, supporting businesses… I think we’re checking off a lot of the boxes, so I hope we can get that support.”
The city will offer more in-person public consultations and ongoing online feedback, Walter said. An online survey is currently open on the city’s Get Involved website.
Feedback will also be gathered from local businesses and environmental, Indigenous, and accessibility groups.
