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http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=41813499-8058-4991-aa94-037151618bda

Proposal includes advocate for area
Pamela Cowan, Leader-Post
Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008

The creation of a downtown advocate is one of the ideas that are "hot off the press" from this week's consultations with Reginans about revitalizing the downtown.

"We heard that when a non-profit group goes to host a festival in the downtown, they get money from the Regina Arts Council, who distributes the funding from the city, and then they will go to the city in order to get the permits that they require and all of the money they just received will end up going to parks and to roads and to permits -- they really need an advocate," said Jennifer Keesmaat, the project lead for OfficeforUrbanism, the Toronto-based consulting firm hired by the city to renew downtown Regina.

"One of the things that we'll also be proposing is the waiving of fees for not-for-profit organizations that want to do any kind of event in the downtown. That's a great thing the city can do to support arts organizations undertaking initiatives in the downtown."
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She believes a downtown advocate could liaise between community groups, businesses and city hall bureaucracy.

Another proposal she presented at Forum 2 on Friday afternoon is to create an urban forest downtown, which would create interest in the landscape and cut down on wind.

"One of the reasons that the winds are so bad downtown is because you really don't have any tree cover," Keesmaat said.

Mayor Pat Fiacco expects Reginans will share his excitement about the proposals -- work he said should have been done 30 years ago.

He likens the prospective transformation to that in Montreal.

"Old Montreal was abandoned, it was vacant and the urban planners did a tremendous job of converting a number of the vacant commercial properties to residential, keeping the main floor commercial entities," he said.

"There's a tremendous number of art galleries, places for arts and culture and outdoor patios. Their town square is absolutely incredible. It's a people place and that's what this plan speaks to. Making it a bit more pedestrian friendly is important and something I'm all for is making it cyclist friendly."

Participation from the private sector is vital to ensure the plan's success, he said.

"We're going to be asking them to do things differently with their design and how they do business," he said. "We're talking about wider sidewalks -- that's a winner for everybody but that means that they're going to have to look at their development and do things differently."

Keesmaat said many changes would be low cost.

City council has committed $5 million over the next five years for basic infrastructure improvements.

"We will always balance our decisions based on what the taxpayers can afford," Fiacco said.

"I think that we demonstrated that with this last budget. It's all based on priorities as we move forward. I think our council has made the determination that our downtown is a priority for us and the budget will reflect that."

He liked the concept of a downtown advocate because it fits with city council's vision of customer service.

"We want a one-stop shop so with downtown activity it makes absolute sense that we have that," he said.

OfficeforUrbanism will further refine the key ideas for the third and final forum, which is to be held in June. The final Downtown Plan is to be presented to city council later this summer.