THE NITTY-GRITTY ON PUSH TO REVITALIZE DOWNTOWN
Mayor Drew Dilkens unveiled in April the city's latest plan to breathe life into its downtown and combat a prevailing negative perception of the once-thriving neighbourhood.
The seven-part strategy — titled Strengthen the Core — outlines ways to get more folks living, working and visiting downtown by boosting police presence and property standards enforcement, holding more events, helping people experiencing homelessness and mental illness, and more.
The Windsor Star took a closer look at the plan for downtown, which is up for city council approval on May 13.
Who came up with this plan?
Last fall, the city hired Strategycorp to conduct community consultations and pen recommendations to improve downtown.
Once complete, Strategycorp's advice was reviewed by the mayor's office and city administrators. In consultation with downtown stakeholders and city hall staff, Strategycorp created a “solutions-oriented” plan to “improve Windsor's downtown image, help businesses, customers, and residents feel confident in their safety, and connect individuals to appropriate supports where and when they need them.”
What's wrong with Windsor's core?
The consultants heard people don't feel safe downtown and are deterred from visiting for a few reasons, Strategycorp's report said. Negative media attention is blamed for some of those unsafe feelings, as are incidents of property damage, petty crime and social disorder that also frustrate business owners.
Another issue: downtown has limited foot traffic. That's attributed to minimal and inconsistent attractions, events and facilities. Barriers stand in the way of local street “activation” and “placemaking ” plans; efforts to reimagine and reinvent public spaces in ways that prioritize people and activities over infrastructure.
Vacant residences, buildings and land give the impression downtown is declining, and core streets could be more inviting with enhanced beautification efforts.
Strategycorp said a lack of education about homelessness, mental health and addiction issues is also contributing to downtown's bad reputation. Better support for vulnerable people is also needed: Windsor has limited indoor facilities for homeless people, and people experiencing a mental health or addiction crisis “are often not receiving the right supports in the right place at the right time.”
What's in the revitalization plan?
Strategycorp's plan includes seven “action items,” the majority of which aim to help people feel safe and welcome in the downtown. The rest centre on better supporting homeless people, individuals experiencing mental health and addiction crises, and the city's social service delivery partners.
Create and enforce a “zero-tolerance” strategy that “intentionally and consistently” disrupts negative behaviours to “create sustainable behavioural change.”
Strategycorp recommends an expanded Windsor police presence downtown to make officers more visible, improving monitoring in “safety hot spots” with a security camera plan and mobile lighting units, improving resident awareness of existing support services for those with mental health and addiction issues, and redirecting people to “safer places” by moving benches away from vacant buildings and discouraging them from standing on medians.
Create “vibrancy” by attracting and engaging residents and tourists.
The consultant encourages the city to enhance event venues and pursue new, diverse events to draw people downtown; make it easier to organize events by simplifying the approvals process and reducing event permit fees; and create short-term city-funded incentives encouraging the use of vacant commercial properties and “flexible” street spaces.
Encourage people and businesses to move downtown.
Strategycorp suggests officials explore longer-term changes to increase housing options and population density, such as incentives for developers to convert existing buildings into residential housing. To attract businesses, the city could establish an “aggressive, short-term Community Improvement Plan (CIP).”
The city should also encourage the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association to pursue “key” businesses and “anchor tenants,” such as grocery stores and restaurants, the consultant wrote.
Hike the enforcement of property standards and fill vacant buildings.
The consultant recommends officials create or modify bylaws to “better encourage the sufficient maintenance” of vacant buildings, residents and land; facilitate downtown property improvement through the existing
CIP; new financial incentives for current and prospective business owners; increase the number of garbage receptacles downtown and improving the frequency of garbage collection; and reducing the complexity and approval time for city grant applications.
Enhance community engagement and implement a marketing plan.
Strategycorp encourages officials to seek input from downtown stakeholders and community members regularly, promote positive news stories about the core, and emphasize downtown's safety through marketing.
Advance a health and community safety strategy.
The consultant suggests the city expands its advocacy efforts to the provincial and federal governments for a variety of social service plans, including funding to expand police/ hospital partnerships, and to establish a low-barrier transitional care facility for people experiencing an immediate mental health and/or addiction crisis. The downtown plan also recommends extending hours at the Homelessness and Housing Help Hub and providing more supportive housing.
Establish formal channels to drive greater alignment and collaboration between stakeholders.
Strategycorp urges the city to convene a table to “improve collaboration, trust-building and open communication” between leaders from organizations providing mental health and addiction services.
What does the plan cost?
The city plans to spend more than $4.2 million on the downtown plan this year.
■ Capital expenses such as lighting, additional surveillance and bench relocation: $1 million;
■ Reviewing the city's various Community Improvement Plans, including the downtown CIP: $150,000;
■ Expanding the presence of police downtown with 12 dedicated core officers: $1,384,000;
■ Extending hours at H4 from 6 p.m. until midnight: $1,470,340;
■ Adding auxiliary police officers to parks patrol: $217,000;
■ A dedicated Ward 3 bylaw officer to enforce downtown property and building standards: $81,383;
■ A person to co-ordinate and manage the downtown Windsor revitalization plan: $85,655.
The 2024 budget adopted by council earlier this year already included the $1 million for capital expenses related to downtown improvements, as well as funding for the CIP review.
Councillors will be asked to approve the roughly $3.2 million in remaining expenses, resulting in a further property tax increase of 0.7 per cent for a total 2024 tax hike of 4.61 per cent.
The move will require reopening and increasing the city's operating budget. Under strong mayor legislation introduced by the provincial government, the only way to do that is with a mayoral decision from Dilkens, who presented the proposed budget amendment on April 23.
A council majority can amend the mayor's proposal and will have the opportunity to do so at the May 13 meeting.
Dilkens says he will not use his strong mayor powers to veto any council amendments, even though he has the authority.