Monday, August 14, 2017

Site Design for the Kingsway Entertainment District Must be Unfettered by Constraints, Include Public Engagement

Whoa. Hold your horses, City of Greater Sudbury! 
A report dated early August from Ed Archer, Greater Sudbury's CAO, envisions moving the Kingsway event centre and casino developments ahead via some form of 'comprehensive process'. It sounds good, but it certainly appears that the process the CAO has in mind is one that will likely shut the public out of meaningful engagement. Par for the course for Greater Sudbury.
Some things to be concerned about:
1) Although 'public consultation' is referenced as part of a "Site Design Strategy", the timeframes are short. And since the strategy is to be led by Gateway Casino's preferred architect, it's not clear at all how much of an influence public opinion might have on the shape of the buildings and the overall site (Archer's report goes to some length to indicate that many of the design elements of a casino are pre-determined - which, I'm sorry to say, is nonsense - if the province is going to invest in a building to meet the needs of our community, it ought to bloody well meet the needs, and not come in a pre-fab buildable box).
2) About that sole-source contract. Why is the City suggesting that only an architectural firm - one used by Gateway - is the appropriate vehicle for site design? We're talking about a project that is MUCH larger than a casino here. Why not tender, and let's see if we can get some interesting and innovative firms to get involved with the design of this new Entertainment District? I realize that there is a perception that "time is of the essence" - but give me a break - we are talking about a once-in-a-generation project here. Let's not rush this.
3) Public involvement must be an integral part of site and building design. I sincerely hope Council amends the Report so that it's clear that public consultation and engagement must take place throughout the process - at the beginning, pre-conception; and after a concept plan for the site is developed. The public must be involved in helping shape the direction of this development.
4) Oh, and about the desire to comprehensively develop the site? How is that going to happen when the Report also directs the City to beging a re-zoning process for a 'public arena' use? No way. The rezoning needs to be put on hold and addressed as part of a larger Official Plan process - a process envisioned by the report as necessary for the Casino use to move forward. You can't address development 'comprehensively' when you first go ahead and set out the criteria for a portion of that development through zoning - not unless you're willing to revisit zoning at a later date. And that doesn't appear to be in the cards here, and frankly would be redundant.
5) There is no need to start building roads here now - not until issues of servicing and a comprehensive site design process that plugs in the public has been completed. If you start building roads, you constrain the design process - and that's absolutely not the way to do it.
6) Purchasing the property prior to determining whether the site is appropriate for an arena is also something that our Council ought not to be doing. If zoning eventually can't be achieved, the City is going to be left with a piece of worthless, unserviced industrial property. Taxpayers need to be protected here - Greater Sudbury needs to postpone the purchase of this property until all planning approvals are in place.
So while I agree that the notion of 'comprehensive site development' is one that the City ought to strive for, clearly this Report is mostly unhelpful in moving us in that direction. Plug the public in, stop introducing site constraints, and start by providing facts to the public so that we may participate in a design process informed by this information (like, how much is servicing this site really going to cost taxpayers?).
Again, this is a once-in-a-generation project. Let's take the time we need to make sure that we get this right.

(opinions expressed in this blog are my own and should not be interpreted as being consistent with the views and/or policies of the Green Parties of Ontario and Canada)

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