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The complicated oversight structure for Ottawa’s historic pedestrian mall won’t be streamlined in a proposed tweak to the governance of Sparks Street, but at least the city wants to get moving on a plan to improve the commercial strip.
Sparks Street is managed by a Sparks Street mall “authority” and a “Business Improvement Area” group.
The authority, which is in charge of all aspects of Sparks Street, from program permits to where to put benches, dates back 51 years. The 33-year-old BIA pays for maintenance and beautification over and above what the city covers. Each group charges a levy to their members, which are property owners and tenants.
For the past two years, they have been working together as one entity, even though each is governed by a separate bylaw. They couldn’t agree on terms to formalize a merger last year.
When the city checked in with them, the federal reps pointed out the overlap between the two oversight groups for Sparks Street. Private property owners expressed concern about the idea of axing the mall authority, fearing Sparks Street would become lost under the sole oversight of city hall.
Council directed staff to have a governance review done a year ago, but they needed more time to consult stakeholders. A report on the review was published this week ahead of a finance and economic development committee meeting Tuesday.
After taking another run at the complicated governance regime of Sparks Street, the city has decided to keep two separate groups in charge of the strip.
The difference will be a scaled-down authority board comprised of: the city manager, or his designate; the head of city planning; a senior rep from the National Capital Commission; a senior rep from the federal Public Services and Procurement Canada; someone from the BIA; a rep from the authority membership; and, the area councillor.
Once they nail down their mandate as a new authority, the city’s planning department will begin crafting a public realm plan, including ways to accommodate cyclists, loading trucks and new infrastructure. The city will also explore public-private partnerships for programming.
It’s the next in a long string of game plans over the years as the city, feds and private sector sort out the future of Sparks Street.
The private sector owns most of the buildings on the south side of the street. The feds own buildings on the north side. The City of Ottawa owns the street itself.
Kevin McHale, program coordinator for the Sparks Street BIA, credited the city for the latest governance review and its interest in developing a new public realm plan.
“From a municipal standpoint I think there’s a refocus on the business core, clearly with the two LRT stations that are going to be in there and the redo on Queen Street,” McHale said Wednesday.
In the finger-pointing over how Sparks Street functions – and fingers are usually pointed at everyone, from the city, to the NCC to the BIA – the average person doesn’t care about the governance structure, McHale said.
“We do the best we can with it. There’s a lot of struggles that we face,” McHale said. “I think that’s what we can get out of this. We can say, stop blaming with each other.”
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
Sparks Street is managed by a Sparks Street mall “authority” and a “Business Improvement Area” group.
The authority, which is in charge of all aspects of Sparks Street, from program permits to where to put benches, dates back 51 years. The 33-year-old BIA pays for maintenance and beautification over and above what the city covers. Each group charges a levy to their members, which are property owners and tenants.
For the past two years, they have been working together as one entity, even though each is governed by a separate bylaw. They couldn’t agree on terms to formalize a merger last year.
When the city checked in with them, the federal reps pointed out the overlap between the two oversight groups for Sparks Street. Private property owners expressed concern about the idea of axing the mall authority, fearing Sparks Street would become lost under the sole oversight of city hall.
Council directed staff to have a governance review done a year ago, but they needed more time to consult stakeholders. A report on the review was published this week ahead of a finance and economic development committee meeting Tuesday.
After taking another run at the complicated governance regime of Sparks Street, the city has decided to keep two separate groups in charge of the strip.
The difference will be a scaled-down authority board comprised of: the city manager, or his designate; the head of city planning; a senior rep from the National Capital Commission; a senior rep from the federal Public Services and Procurement Canada; someone from the BIA; a rep from the authority membership; and, the area councillor.
Once they nail down their mandate as a new authority, the city’s planning department will begin crafting a public realm plan, including ways to accommodate cyclists, loading trucks and new infrastructure. The city will also explore public-private partnerships for programming.
It’s the next in a long string of game plans over the years as the city, feds and private sector sort out the future of Sparks Street.
The private sector owns most of the buildings on the south side of the street. The feds own buildings on the north side. The City of Ottawa owns the street itself.
Kevin McHale, program coordinator for the Sparks Street BIA, credited the city for the latest governance review and its interest in developing a new public realm plan.
“From a municipal standpoint I think there’s a refocus on the business core, clearly with the two LRT stations that are going to be in there and the redo on Queen Street,” McHale said Wednesday.
In the finger-pointing over how Sparks Street functions – and fingers are usually pointed at everyone, from the city, to the NCC to the BIA – the average person doesn’t care about the governance structure, McHale said.
“We do the best we can with it. There’s a lot of struggles that we face,” McHale said. “I think that’s what we can get out of this. We can say, stop blaming with each other.”
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
