RESULTS OF THE DAN BURDEN WALKABILITY AUDIT

Dan Burden, of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, recently gave a public presentation on Walkable Communities from a Vernon perspective and lent his expertise to the City Centre Neighbourhood Plan process. The presentation was attended by over 100 people and Dan spoke about the challenges that many communities are faced with in redesigning our neighbourhoods for people instead of for cars. You can view a summary of Dan’s comments on important steps that need to be taken to move towards a more walkable and livable City Centre by following this link: Dan Burden Memorandum: Toward a more Walkable and Livable Vernon City Centre - PDF 14.31 MB You can learn more about Dan Burden and walkable and livable communities at www.walklive.org and www.walkable.org.

Summary of Results

Phase 1 of the City Centre Neighbourhood Plan process has been completed, with the focus on public participation and obtaining input on the issues and opportunities within the City Centre. This included the distribution of a questionnaire to all households in the city, as well as a series of five open houses that were held from Saturday, November 21 to Thursday, November 26. Approximately 600 questionnaire responses were received and approximately 700 people attended the five open houses, which were designed around four key themes: Neighbourhood Amenities; Housing; Environment; and Transportation. A tremendous amount of input was received from all who participated. A full summary report of all input received from both the questionnaire and the open houses can be reviewed through the following links. Executive Summary   Full Questionnaire Responses  Open House Results-Neighbourhood Amenities  Open House Results-Housing  Open House Results-Environment  Open House Results-Transportation

Though divergent points of view were expressed, there were a number of significant trends that emerged reflecting a vision of the key elements necessary to revitalize the City Centre. Thank you to all who participated in the first phase of the plan process, your input is greatly appreciated. Congratulations to Shannon Hairsine, Ed Devlin, Dave Fletcher, Bill and Sherry Musselwhite and Nadine McGregor who were drawn among the questionnaire responses as winners of Downtown Dollars Gift Certificates worth $100 each.

Background

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During the development of the City of Vernon Official Community Plan 2008, the City Centre was identified as the key redevelopment area intended to become an economic and social anchor for the entire City. One of the priority recommendations was to prepare a more detailed plan for the future of the City Centre. The Vernon Downtown Concept Plan, prepared in 1998, was the last planning effort to look at the City Centre in a comprehensive way. The neighbourhood plan process will build on work that has already been done and engage the public to identify a long term vision and key strategies necessary to facilitate the implementation of the plan.

Process The process to develop the City Centre Neighbourhood Plan is outlined below. There are several opportunities for you to be directly involved in the process and we look forward to your participation.

Contact Information The process will extend through to the end of next summer. Future opportunities for public input will be advertised as the process continues. If you have any questions or comments regarding the process or the plan please do not hesitate to contact:

Chris Ulmer, Long Range Planner City of Vernon. Phone: 250-550-7830 culmer@vernon.ca