Residents weigh in on city plan
Summerside planning board recommends following Downtown Urban Core Plan recommendation
The City of Summerside’s planning board will recommend to council that the city follow the Downtown Urban Core Plan and adopt formbased code in the downtown. The board’s recommendation is not binding on council. Only three councillors sit on the board and can vote. The full council will have an opportunity to question, accept or reject the recommendation on March 20.
Council has been debating this move for a couple of months now as part of its on- going official plan and zoning bylaw review.
As part of that review, the city has been trying to decide how to approach development in the downtown, and one of the options presented has been form- based code.
Form- based code is designed to cut red tape for developers by laying out what the community expects of them before they start planning for their project. It also includes adopting a controversial three- storey minimum policy on any new construction in the core. Both are recommendations of the award- winning Urban Core Plan, written by Ekistics Planning & Design at the behest of downtown interest groups and presented to council earlier this year. Some councillors have argued that the Ekistics plan should be followed, others have been in favour of tweaking the plan and others are not comfortable with building height minimums.
The discussion has garnered public interest, prompting council to take the unusual step of advertising Wednesday’s planning board meeting more than usual and to invite public input during the meeting.
This prompted about 20 members of the community to attend. One speaker, George Dalton, encouraged council to hold a public town hall regarding the proposed plans for the downtown, adding that the proposed changes have not been properly communicated to the community.
“This decision for this community is the biggest decision we’re ever going to make,” said Dalton. “And I think the council underestimates what this means for the community.” In response, some councillors pointed out that this process has been ongoing for years and that a number of public consultation meetings have been held over that time.
“There’s been tremendous opportunity for people to input – and if they haven’t it’s because they don’t have an interest,” said Coun. Frank Costa. However, no public consultation has been held since the completion of the Ekistics plan, nor has the plan been made widely available to the public.
The Journal Pioneer has been provided a copy of the report by the city, and it is available at www. journalpioneer. com. Others spoke out in favour of following the recommendation of the Ekistics plan, including Bob Ashley, the city’s chief administrative officer, and leaders of the Summerside Port Authority and Downtown Summerside, organizations that were sponsors of the urban core plan.
Robert Gallant, owner of Michael’s Pizzeria in the downtown, said he was totally in favour of following the Ekistics recommendations.
“Finally, some development,” said Gallant.
“I’m looking forward to seeing this development happen and I will do anything in my power to help it.”