Port Colborne discussing downtown plan

Port Colborne is having a public information session tonight to discuss the downtown central business district’s community improvement plan.

City community/policy planner Lindsay Richardson said the information session is an effort to get input from the public about what changes they’d like to see in the area.

Richardson said the current plan involves streetscaping and more technical work, such as underground piping.

It was originally drawn up in 2012, however, and has been sitting on a back-burner waiting for funding to come along to cover the multimilliondollar implementation cost.

These drawings and the history of the project up to this point are what Richardson said are up for discussion during tonight’s meeting.

There will be a presentation made by Jim Huppunen, manager of engineering services, followed by an open forum. Hippunen said city staff will also be at the meeting to answer any questions.

Because the city wants to have a plan that is ready to go for when funding does come along, city staff are going to use questions, concerns and information gathered from the public at the information session to tweak the five-year-old design and bring it up to date.

Richardson said it’s a matter of making sure plans are still appropriate for Port Colborne’s downtown core.

From there, staff will submit a report to council with recommendations on how to proceed with the plan. Hippunen said people will have until September to submit comments and is working out a way to make comment sheets available for those who can’t make it to the meeting. He said he hopes to have them up on the city’s website. If not, they will be available at city hall or people can email him at jimhuppunen@portcolborne.ca.

Richardson said there will be no focus on monetary costs which could change depending on what ideas people have and what changes staff and councillors decide to make to plans.

The meeting takes place in Port Colborne’s council chambers between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.