Downtown dreams
Ambitious plan for Charlotte Street unveiled to public
Downtown Sydney could look like more like a modern European city in just a few years, complete with outdoor plazas, pop-up markets — even a public square with a big screen for watching movies or sporting events.
Ekistics Plan and Design unveiled an ambitious $7.5-million revitalization plan to the public Tuesday that would drastically change the look and feel of the area extending from the Esplanade on the waterfront up to George Street and bordered on the sides by Dorchester and Townsend streets.
Charlotte Street would undergo a complete facelift, with power lines buried underground and a wider one-lane street to allow for wider sidewalks, a bike lane, outdoor dining and seating area and small parks to make it more inviting for people to live and shop.
While it may seem a bit piein-the-sky for an economically depressed area with a declining population, CBRM Coun. Eldon MacDonald, whose district includes the downtown and a member of the committee tasked with breathing new life into the downtown core, says that’s exactly why the plan is vital to the municipality. And, he said, not only is it possible, it could begin happening in just three years.
He said because Charlotte Street is in desperate need of major infrastructure work, now is the time to make wholesale changes.
“We’re all aware that Charlotte Street is deteriorating,” he said, “we’re all aware that it’s six or eight or 10 inches higher than centre at the curb. When you park at Napoli, you have to put one foot in your car before you close your door because it will jam your foot in. You’re at a 45 degree angle when you’re at Daniel’s. That’s not normal, that is going to have to be fixed. And when we’re doing underground piping or any kind of infrastructure under the asphalt, under the concrete, when that’s tore up, that’s your window of opportunity. My opinion is, if that’s tore up in three years time, we’ve got an opportunity to do this, because once the asphalt and concrete goes back down, you’re a good 30-50 years before you’re going to say ‘Tear up the asphalt, tear up the concrete.’
So for me I think we have a really good window of opportunity. I think it can happen quicker than most people probably think.”
Most of the approximately 80 people at the public presentation seemed to agree, including Danielle and Mark Patterson, who run their technology company Docmaster out of an office on Wentworth Street.
Danielle said the makeover would “instantly change the perception of Cape Breton,” and encourage more young couples like themselves to move back to the CBRM like they did after years of living in Newfoundland and Florida.
“There’s a lot happening, there’s a lot of momentum, there’s a lot of people who are already living here and want to live here and stay here, but there’s also a lot of people who want to move back here, and I think they get turned off when they come home and see Charlotte Street depleting,” she said. “I think this would instantly change the opinion of what is actually happening and the potential that exists here. This is a great step. It’s now or never, in my opinion.”
Mark said the $7.5-million price tag is a “drop in the bucket” for such a huge undertaking.
“I think it’s a fantastic plan to revitalize the downtown area, and obviously we can hire
all the consultants to draw up the best plans and have them on paper, but ultimately it comes down to funding and the money to make it happen,” he said. “And what was presented today, with the cost of doing this would have such a huge transformation on not just Sydney but the whole CBRM, and for the cost of it, I think it’s very realistic that this could proceed in the next couple of years with the help of some government funding across all three levels of government.”
Not everybody was completely taken with the plan, however.
Laura Lewis, owner of Rascalz Kids Clothing, had apprehensions about Charlotte Street being reduced to one lane.
“First of all, I’m excited that there’s new planning happening for downtown because I love downtown and I love being down there. My concern with having one-way, singlelane traffic, I think it could cause chaos on the street with delivery trucks, with parking,
where people would have to wait to back into a parking spot. I think it’s wonderful to have large sidewalks and bicycle lanes, but I think what we have to realize there are a lot of services and retail that are downtown and we need the traffic to run smoothly. I would be concerned that it wouldn’t be effective.”
MacDonald said all the input from the meeting would be taken into consideration as the plan is finalized in the next few months and then presented to CBRM council.
“While those things are happening there’s gong to be some pains while it’s being done, but the short-term pain has to be looked at as a 25-year, long-term window of having prosperity on the waterfront, on Charlotte Street, on George Street, and all the side streets in between. Not an easy thing to accomplish but I think the municipality will be onboard to make those things happen,” he said.
“This really is not about downtown Sydney, it’s about downtowns, and what we can learn over the next two-anda-half years or more from the plan we’re going to go through, it can be transferred into downtown Glace Bay, to downtown New Waterford, to downtown North Sydney, to downtown anywhere. So it’s about putting something in place to help build on.”