If the turnout at this week's public engagement session for the Downtown Revitalization Plan is any indication, a lot of people are heavily invested in what's going on in the area.  

Project Manager Karl Mielke says 87 people signed up for the event but more than that actually turned out.  

"It was interesting, we had a very positive and enthusiastic turnout.  There are definitely issues that residents are concerned about and they tend to be quite specific and different depending on who you speak to but overall there seemed to be quite a positive sentiment where people are getting enthusiastic about creating a new vision for the downtown, and really seeing the downtown start to change and become a destination in Airdrie."

The open house was meant to build on visioning exercises that were conducted in 2017.  Members of the Downtown Plan project team were on hand to share the status of the plan and participants were given the opportunity to sign up for future engagement events.  Mielke says many people did just that.

"Originally we were going to have 10 people (for the Citizen's Advisory Committee) but at the meeting, we had about 50 people who expressed interest in joining the committee. which was great to see.  We definitely don't want to turn people away if we don't have to so we're going to look at how we can accommodate as many people and as much input from the community as possible in this."

The Citizen's Advisory Committee will be charged with reviewing the plan or its components at various stage of completion.  

A lot of people also signed up for the design charette which is the next step in the process and comes up on March 12th.  It will focus on the layout, scale, and forms of buildings, transportation and mobility, and overall pedestrian experience.  Mielke describes it as a board game style design workshop where groups of six or seven people are given a base map of the downtown. 

"They'll be able to place building footprints, and pathway and roadway connections, trees, parks, all the features of a downtown that they think our downtown should have and reflect and celebrate.  They'll be able to arrange those things in a way that they think makes the most sense."

The planning team will then create five or six concept plans from the charette and consolidate those into one concept plan that will be presented at a second open house to be held sometime in April.  You can stay posted on the project and the upcoming events and timelines at www.airdrie.ca/downtown.  You can email the project team at downtown@airdrie.ca.

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