Open House Draws a Crowd and Comments

The Packet and Times - Orillia's open house to gather information for the downtown/waterfront plan has been a success, says Ian Sugden, the city's director of planning and development.

"It's generating the type of response we were hoping to get," Sugden said Thursday. "There's a steady flow of people anytime I've been there."

The city is hosting a four-day, self-guided open house at the Orillia Public Library, asking residents for final input into the city's waterfront and downtown plan.

In mid-July, Urban Strategies Inc. - the consulting firm working on Orillia's Downtown Tomorrow project - recommended 33 strategic initiatives the city could pursue over the next two decades to revitalize the downtown and waterfront.

Along with the large model of Orillia, information from the charette process is on display, as well as a video of the plan voiced by George Dark, a partner with Urban Strategies.

Residents are being asked if they like the long-term vision, to prioritize the initiatives and more.

"People are actually taking the time to write comments," Sugden said. "Most of the pages are full, they're not just one word comments. They've put some serious thought into it and some good questions and comments were made."

Around noon on Thursday, Sugden picked up 16 comment sheets written since that morning.

"Today is the most we've had in one go," he said.

To date, the city has 25 comment sheets and a couple of emails generated from the open house.

"We hope to use the comments to refine the final report, the initiatives and project recommendations and also to help rank the initiatives for a presentation to council," Sugden said. "It makes it a little easier for council to decide which ones are most important to the community when they know the community has had some input into it."

Bernard Hallett of Washago and his wife, Joan, checked out the open house on afternoon.

Hallett would like to see a splash pad and more entertainment in Couchiching Beach Park and a trolley car operating in the downtown and park.

"They could put the parking away from downtown but have the trams to take the people downtown," he said.

Asked what he thinks of more residential housing downtown, Hallett said "as long as it's not too high. You wouldn't want it so anybody couldn't see the lake."

Hallett would like to see the townships contribute to the cost of developing Orillia's downtown and waterfront.

The open house was going to end Friday, but will continue into the weekend, Sugden said.

The only difference is the video won't be running as staff won't be on hand to operate it.

The library is open Saturday from 9a.m. to 5p.m. and Sunday from 1p.m. to 4p.m.

All of the information will be removed on Monday, Sugden said.