The Downtown

Smart Growth principle #1 states "Mix land uses - neighbourhoods have a mixture of homes, retail businesses, recreational opportunities, etc."

Two Summerland specific questions were asked. "What practical actions could we take to encourage the re-development of our downtown core to include mixed retail/residential buildings?"

1. Encourage Urban growth and containment rather than sprawl.
2. Define a downtown development area
3. Introduce incentive policies for downtown redevelopment, e.g. tax breaks, zoning bonuses.
4. Review fire and licencing restrictions.
5. Support downtown businesses to create favorable business conditions
6. Encourage the formation of business cooperatives to assemble land parcels large enough to make mixed higher density development possible and economical
7. Provide for a mixture of spaces (residential and commercial) including smaller spaces to make rents affordable
8. Clean up the backside of buildings, especcially along Wharton Street, to improve the ambience of downtown
9. Expand the downtown improvement theme e.g. trees, street lamps, brick pavers to neighbouring and connecting areas
10. Make the downtown more pedestrian and scooter friendly
11. Develop people places, e.g. plazas
    

The second Summerland related question was "What forms of mixed use should be encouraged for Lower Town?"

Comments on this topic were:

1. Respect and maintain viewscapes - concern about unsuitable buildings.
2. Better trail/pedestrian connections to down town.
3. Perhaps some small tourist/boutique commerical.