The City of Airdrie has a new document on their website outlining data from their recent Downtown Visioning exercises.

According to the new document, the Downtown exercises ran from January 30 to March 1, and included two workshops and two mobile workshops as well as focus groups, online surveys and one-on-one meetings. Questions in the exercises were specifically meant to address four main topics: What is the boundary for downtown Airdrie, what is the opinion of the current state of downtown, what services are expected downtown, and what are some of the strengths and weaknesses facing downtown.

The findings from the exercises found that between 75 and 90% of participants in the exercises agreed that "downtown" relates more to the Main Street commercial core than to the current boundaries outlined in the City's Downtown plan.

The document showed that participants were overall dissatisfied with the current state of downtown. 87 percent of survey opinions about the current state of downtown were negative, and 43 percent of survey respondents said there was nothing unique about Airdrie's downtown. People involved in the exercises also preferred to see actions taken to improve downtown as opposed to leaving it as is.

According to the findings, most people currently use downtown for shopping, dining and library services. There was a desire expressed through the exercises to see more dining, shopping and cultural activities offered.

The data also showed that strengths of downtown include its central location and easy access, while weaknesses include a lack of parking, outdated and unattractive buildings, and a lack of draw.

City staff will present the findings of the exercises to City Council at their meeting on Tuesday (April 18).

 

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