Last night's (April 18) city council meeting included a presentation from Stephen Utz, Team Leader for Planning and Development, outlining data from recent Downtown Visioning exercises. The data was previously released on the City's website late last week.

As Utz detailed to Council, the majority of people that took part in the exercises expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of downtown Airdrie, and see it as a major area of improvement. Based on the findings, City staff recommended that Council move forward to create a new Downtown plan.

The Council stood divided on the issue. Councillor Allan Hunter said he could not support the motion, stating that he felt Council was moving forward on a snapshot of feelings of a certain set of citizens at a particular moment in time and not on actual tangibles. Councillor Darrell Belyck also stood opposed, questioning the statistical validity of Utz's report. Both Utz and City Manager Paul Schulz emphasized that the exercises and reports were never meant to be statistically valid.

Councillor Candice Kolson stood in support of the motion, saying it was time to move forward and form a vision and stick with it. Likewise, Councillors Kelly Hegg, Fred Burley and Ron Chapman expressed support of the motion.

Mayor Peter Brown expressed reluctant support for the motion. After a lengthy discussion, the motion eventually passed 5-2.

 

Read More:

City Releases Downtown Data

 

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