Downtown Revitalization Phase Two?

This January the provincial government announced they were investing up to $26 million into rural downtown revitalization. Through the Main Street Revitalization Initiative, municipalities can fund projects that will support and benefit small businesses, such as signage, parking, trails, streetscape improvement and marketing plan implementation including business attraction activities and special events. North Grenville qualifies for $52,198.96 worth of funding (over twice the annual BIA budget !).

This all seems like very good news for Downtown Kemptville and the efforts to continue its revitalization. However, due to the upcoming elections, Municipal governments are required to sign a funding agreement as soon as possible and indicate how these one-time funds are to be spent. Staff recommendations are to be presented the Committee of the Whole on April 16th. Not much time to consult with stakeholders and develop a plan.

Luckily the BIA enjoys a close relationship with the Municipality. We are, after all, a Committee of Council, so when the news hit regarding this opportunity we were already in contact with the Economic Development Department and they attended our February Board of Management meeting to brief us and to consult.

On March 21st, the Old Town Kemptville Business Improvement Area Board of Management passed the following: “Be it resolved that three ideas to be presented to the Municipality regarding use of the Main Street Revitalization Funds: 1) Parking as a priority for the downtown; 2) Development of a downtown website; and 3) Accessibility for challenged people to the Rotary Park area”.If Council agrees then these ideas must be developed and costed in short order.

The BIA has been very active over the past year in advocating for improved parking to meet current and future needs downtown. A request to identify and create additional off-street parking was included in the BIA’s deputation to Council during their budget deliberations in the fall of 2017. In 2010 the Municipality conducted a Downtown Kemptville Commercial Area Parking Study and then two years later a Strategic Action Plan was written based on that study. It identified a number of recommendations to manage demand, improve supply and promote alternatives. One of the “long term” (2020 and beyond) recommendations contained in the 2012 Strategic Action Plan was: “That the Municipality acquires another large public lot in the downtown commercial area”.

If we encourage people to shop, dine and explore Downtown Kemptville, we need to provide them with enough adequate parking. This continues to be a common complaint among downtown merchants and customers alike. The question, as always, is where is the money going to come from? With the recent announcement about the Main Street Revitalization Initiative, we might just have the beginning of an answer.

More Parking for Downtown Kemptville

In the summer of 2017 the Old Town Kemptville Business Improvement Area’s (BIA) Board of Management identified a downtown wishlist in anticipation of the Municipality’s 2018 budget deliberations. They included such things as a Community Information Board in one of the parks and funds to continue the Pop-Up Shop Program but by far the most important request from businesses was to dramatically improve parking downtown.

On September 25th, the BIA Chair, Deb Wilson and I presented to Council six items for their consideration and then scheduled private meetings with each individual Councilor to review our budget requests. Here is an excerpt from the background document we provided in advance of these meetings:

A 2012 Strategic Action Plan, based on the 2010 Parking Study, identified a number of recommendations to Manage Demand, Improve Supply and Promote Alternatives. The BIA would like to see more progress made on these recommendations, namely:

a) Additional Municipal off-street parking

We need to identify and create additional off-street parking to meet current and future needs. This was identified 7 years ago as a long term action plan in the 2010 Parking Study. With the construction of the new North Grenville District High School and Kemptville Public School in areas away from Downtown Kemptville, these two large properties are not being used to their full potential and they have ample availability of parking. Is there an opportunity here to negotiate with the Upper Canada District School Board for some sort of arrangement?

b) Rationalization of current Parking By-Laws

The Municipality has instituted a 3-hour parking limit between 7:00am and 7:00pm on all streets within the boundaries of the entire Municipality. Signage in certain parts of the Downtown Kemptville area including Clothier Street between Rideau Street and Sanders Street and Prescott Street between the north branch of Reuben Crescent and Asa Street indicate a 1 hour parking limit. Without enforcement, and to encourage longer visits downtown, we suggest removing them.

c) More (and larger) directional signs indicating Free Parking
There is free parking downtown but it’s hard to find especially for first time visitors. Let’s make it very easy for people to find the parking we do have.

Our Council is to be applauded for soliciting Community Requests and for instituting consultations with Councilors as part of their budget deliberations. More citizens and members community groups should take advantage of this opportunity in the future. Here is an extract of the November 14th, 2017 Minutes of Special Committee of the Whole meeting that dealt with Community Requests:

Downtown Parking Improvements

– Councillor Bertram advised that he had met with the BIA to improve supply, manage the demand and provide alternatives for parking in the downtown. Karen Dunlop noted that she had met with BIA to discuss limited parking for 3 hours. There are some 1 hour signs that will be removed. The sidewalk budget has been increased from $9000 to $14000 in 2018. We will look at a priority listing of sidewalks in 2018. Phil Gerrard advised that leasing the former high school site is problematic as we do not know who the new owners will be. No cost has been identified. Our parking study will be reviewed in 2018.

Improve Signage for Free Parking in the Downtown Core
– Councillor Onasanya advised that he has met with the BIA. This will help businesses.
Moved by David Gordon, Seconded by Jim Bertram
That $500 be included in the 2018 budget to improve directional signage for free downtown parking areas.
CARRIED


I will continue to work with the BIA to press the Municipality to implement their short term plans to improve the current parking situation and finally initiate long term plans to create additional off-street parking downtown. If we encourage people to shop, dine and explore Downtown Kemptville, they need to easily find convenient parking.

The Old Town Kemptville BIA – Will It Grow or Die?

Originally published in 2018

Dear Friends of Downtown Kemptville:

When I accepted the position of Executive Director in January of 2016, I was quite frank about how I saw my primary responsibility working with the Old Town Kemptville BIA again. I was going to “either help build it or blow it up”.

The jury is still out on how successful we’ve been in building the BIA over the past two years. “We” because the current BIA Board of Management is committed to creating much more value to BIA Members and Associate Members than we currently offer. Eliminating the BIA is an option – the status quo is simply untenable; we can’t continue in our current form. The BIA comprises a tiny physical footprint representing no more than 70 to 80 businesses and tries to provide value to all of Downtown Kemptville on a budget of less than $25,000 a year. Compare that to the Downtown Carleton Place BIA with 150 members and a budget of $150,000.

The question of expanding the Old Town Kemptville Business Improvement Area boundaries to better serve the local business community is attracting not only interest but also support from existing members and potential members alike.

A bit of background is necessary at this point – In 2015, the BIA received matching funds from the Eastern Ontario Development Program to commission a Business, Marketing and Programming Plan from the consulting firm of McSweeney & Associates. In their final report dated July of that year, they recommended:

“ In order to successfully support the achievement of the Downtown Vision, and achieve greater resident and visitor attraction to both Downtown and to Kemptville, McSweeney and Associates recommends to the Municipality of North Grenville the consideration of a new BIA to be established for the Urban Service Area of Kemptville that includes the current BIA area ”.

In July of this year a BIA Expansion Steering Committee was struck to identify the potential new boundaries and set a date for one or more formal public information sessions. The Steering Committee, chaired by our Treasurer, Stephen Bent (Manager,CIBC), recently completed an Boundary Expansion Prospectus which was approved by the BIA Board of Management for public distribution and discussion two weeks ago.

The Old Town Kemptville BIA has a two-fold aim in proposing boundary expansion: a) to continue our work reasserting the importance of smart growth for Kemptville and b) to expand our programs into adjacent areas, where they will add value to property owners and businesses alike. Next steps include meeting with Council and Municipal staff and to hold public meetings to determine the degree of community interest in proceeding with the proposed boundary changes.

Currently comprising Prescott Street from Elizabeth Street to Clothier Street and Clothier from Rideau to Barnes, the Old Town Kemptville BIA has for several years serviced businesses just outside its formal footprint and in the past two years has slowly moved away from the “Old Town” branding to a more generic “Downtown” appellation.

The fear of “losing” Old Town Kemptville’s identity within a larger BIA footprint is a commonly raised concern, but it should be balanced against the opportunity provided by much more extensive marketing that will reach into secondary markets, provide cross-marketing and promotion of two or three different types of “experiences” in Kemptville. The preservation of a downtown identity will always remain a critical part of marketing the overall Kemptville experience.

What many people aren’t aware of is that BIAs are member-funded through an additional levy applied to commercial and industrial properties within the footprint and that income goes straight into area improvements and programming. Annual BIA budgets are submitted to Municipal Council for approval, as well as being independently audited by external auditors.

The Boundary Expansion Prospectus focuses on lowering the levy (per $1,000 of assessed property value) from $2.30 to $1.00 while presenting a range of itemized budget items to prospective members. A new Kemptville BIA would see its budget increase from $25,000 to $131,000 based on this lower levy and the larger footprint. It could provide for such things as regional advertising as well as local advertorials highlighting 24 businesses a year; an office with full time staff and a detailed Economic Survey every three years. Put out to tender, this professionally conducted survey would provide members with detailed information about the trading area and customer preferences within it – beyond what is available through Statistics Canada – including people-on-the-street interviews.

All businesses in Kemptville share some common interests.

A Kemptville BIA would be a better advocate for economic development within our community, with the goal that employment growth in Kemptville is realized through the retention and expansion of local small business. A Kemptville BIA would have sufficient resources and capacities to reach and market much more effectively and consistently into both primary and secondary markets.

There are far greater results and successes to be gained by marketing a “complete package” of all that Kemptville has to offer. A Kemptville BIA could represent concerns more anonymously and effectively as a larger group than a single business/property owner. For example, a new expanded BIA could be very effective at liaising with the Municipality and the County with respect to the revitalization of the Highway 43 corridor and future boulevard and street-scaping plans.

The boundaries of the Old Town Kemptville BIA were created over ten years ago. Since then there has been significant growth in North Grenville and we will see even more commercial growth over the next 5 years. A new more effective Kemptville Business Improvement Area should be in place to meet this challenge.

Small Scale Farms – are they sustainable?

As we move closer to the end of Act 2 in the Kemptville College saga, will small scale farming education be part of the discussion in Act 3?

Is there a place for small-scale farmers to learn what they need about the business and management of small farms? The Two Rivers Food Hub is helping with growing markets for local producers but that is just part of the puzzle. Consumer awareness is another factor. The Kemptville Farmers’ Market plays just a small part in consumer education about the value of local food. More needs to be done in the area of local food literacy.

Below is a link to a thoughtful article written by Cara Parks that asks if sustainable small farms are sustainable? I’d encourage everyone interested in local food to read it

The End Of Organic Farming Might Be Sooner Than We Thought

A Downtown Revival

It’s hard to pin-point exactly when the turnaround downtown started as it evolved slowly. I’ll say, it was about two years ago when Array Hair Studio opened across from Geronimo Coffee House at 201 Prescott. Array brought a nice upscale business that seemed to fit everyone’s vision of what Old Town Kemptville could be. Then Terri and Lee McIlvenna bought and built Geronimo’s into a thriving business that not only opens nice and early but now seven days a week. Recently Array moved a few steps north and bought the building at 115 Prescott across from the CIBC. Like To Be Continued‘s second expansion in just four years, it’s another concrete example of business confidence in the future of Downtown Kemptville.

Since January of this year however the pace has picked up noticeably. Next door to Array’s new location, we’ve seen 113 Prescott, the former Kemptville Advance building leased to the professional engineers of ISI Controls Inc. Setanta Solutions Inc, another professional IT service, now occupies 206C Prescott just south of Voice2Net which opened last year at 200 Prescott. Exit Realty By Design celebrates the Grand Opening of their realty office this Wednesday at 310 Prescott and Integrated Business Solutions Group is in the process of opening offices at 28 Clothier Street East. Up in the Rideau-Sanders Triangle, Andrew Beveridge CPA opened shop at 200 Sanders and across the street at 215 Sanders, the North Grenville Times now has an office on the ground floor (side entrance).

The new growth downtown hasn’t all been just professional services however. We have new investment downtown through new owners of the Kemptville Academy of Martial Arts (formerly Tekken MAA), Brewing Oasis, the South Branch Bistro (formerly the Branch Restaurant) and the Clothier Mills Inn Motel across the street. The Bowen Approach is now located at 3 Clothier and Get Cronk’d , a new fitness business at 9 Clothier (behind), has just hired a new trainer! GlowSport – Kemptville, The Glow Entertainment Company is opening soon at 29 Clothier Street East. By the Prescott Bridge both 10A and 10B Prescott have been leased – look for a number of innovative businesses housed at those locations opening soon. The Prim Shed at 419 Rideau Street and the Posh Plum at 207 Prescott opened just a few months ago. Just last week New Energy Kreations began renovations of a new showroom at 132 Prescott, which will greatly improve the streetscape of that section of Prescott, in other words, the broken window has been replaced.

(Ken Schliemann stands outside his new showroom for New Energy Kreations with Array Hair Studio reflected in the window)

We all look forward to see what will occupy the former Butler’s Victorian Pantry (currently being renovated by new owners) and who will be the new tenants of the vacant storefronts recently leased, such as Array’s former location. The BIA will be working hard this Fall and Winter to help fill the last of the available commercial spaces downtown. Look for even more Grand Openings in the months to come.

Friends of Downtown

Originally published in the North Grenville Times (July 5th, 2017)

On June 28th I attended the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affair’s Teeny Tiny Summit in Merrickville. The summit was an opportunity to learn and discuss “scale appropriate” economic development. For all our much vaunted urban-style amenities, Kemptville is still very much a small rural town with all the typical development problems of other teeny tiny places, so I was very interested in attending.

The keynote speaker was Peter Kenyon, a self described “social capitalist and community enthusiast” from Western Australia. A dynamic speaker, he shared a number of amazing examples of how very small rural communities had transformed themselves from the inside out using imaginative, positive thinking community members rather than government-driven programs or philanthropy, The range of ideas and projects initiated by ordinary citizens to turn their community’s economy around was truly inspiring. Not that these ideas can be replicated successfully in other communities. Each found their own unique solution to declining population and job loss. The “take away” was the power of positive thinking and the confirmation that “People who care are a community’s greatest asset” (Paul Born)

I was reminded of what our community has accomplished by the vision and dedication of ordinary people; of what the Friends of the Library and the Friends of Ferguson Forest have accomplished; of what the various faith communities in North Grenville have built and I started to wonder might be accomplished in Kemptville by Friends of Downtown. Could it be, as Peter Kenyon suggested a number of times that “we are the ones we’re waiting for” to create a vibrant, thriving and resilient economy downtown?

The community of Oxford Mills got tired of waiting for the Municipality to replace the gazebo in Maplewood Park and did it themselves. Take a look at what they accomplished by having a vision and a belief in themselves. Great things can happen when people get together. When they share their talents, time and treasure in the service of an idea.

Does North Grenville want a walkable, bicycle friendly downtown with adequate parking; an outdoor rink and splash pad in Riverside Park; a trail running along the South Branch connecting Ferguson Forest to the downtown parks (Curry, Rotary, Post Office and Riverside). Does it want to preserve and celebrate it’s unique history and it’s built heritage? Do we want to retain and increase the number of unique businesses downtown?

This is a call to action to those with a positive outlook – to find others who share their vision of the type of downtown they want. Start figuring out a way to bring it about. The BIA has a Facebook page you can post to – find it here. We publish a newsletter, subscribe to it here. Both will provide you with information about issues and events downtown. Start a conversation with a neighbour or friend.There are some things money can’t buy and one of them is community. Community has to be built and built by participation.

Stop waiting for someone or something else to make things better. Let’s GitR Dun!

How to Save the Conservative Party

Andrew Coyne is my kind of conservative (whether he identifies as one or not). He writes in this article “there is no neccesary contradiction between a concern for the individual and an ideal of community.”  Limited government is government that minds its place – it’s not less government or small government, it is the creation and servant of the people.

Worth the time to read …

Source: How to Save the Conservative Party · thewalrus.ca

Build A Community, Not Just An Economy

I wish I’d written this but I didn’t …

Source: 13 Ways To Kill Your Community

(They) have travelled all across this great country of ours, from community to community, and one thing has always stood out . . . everyone wants economic success. Why wouldn’t they? Economic success helps our communities grow and become stronger. The challenge most communities face, however, is they forget that developing their economy is virtually a fruitless effort unless they focus on building a strong community first.

Communities often work on building a business-friendly mantra and reputation. Their singular goal is to attract new business and industries, and retain current ones, through a regime of low taxes, reduced regulations, and shop-local initiatives. Those are great undertakings, but they are rarely enough to ensure enduring prosperity if that is where all the community’s efforts go.

Such singular focus is like deciding that only one feature is needed to attract someone of the opposite sex, such as just having a nice smile, or just having lots of money, or just being smart at puzzles. Sure, any one of those things might get you a lot of dates, but they don’t necessarily ensure building anything meaningful and enduring. That requires more of a complete package. If your community wants to grow an enduring economy it should focus on creating a complete package that attracts business and industry for a myriad of reasons, not just one.

A community looking to explore opportunities for growth should always look first to establish an understanding of itself. I have called them community personality assessments, or values assessments, or two-lists assessments. Really, the name isn’t as consequential as how deeply you want to understand your community. Once you understand who and what you are, you will see how your community can become better, and where its opportunities lie.

I watched in horror as a wonderful community, thriving and successful, destroyed itself because it never stopped to consider or understand what made it great. It was a bustling community with a vibrant downtown core of mom-and-pop stores, appreciating home values, and lots of visitors that dropped a lot of money in town. It was quaint. It was picturesque. It was almost a fairy tale community. Then they decided they needed an economic development plan just like everyone else. They hired an economic development officer, handed him a generic economic development plan, and set him to work. He worked hard and managed to attract a lot of businesses to town. They were mostly those big box stores that say to everyone, “We are successful now.” They put them between the town and the highway to lure the traffic in, just as those economic development strategies suggest.

It destroyed the town. It lost all the reasons that made it great. It was no longer the quaint picturesque place everyone wanted to visit and live in. It lost its charm. One resident said to me as he was filling up his moving truck on the way out of town, “If I wanted to live in the city, I would have stayed in the city.” Not establishing an understanding of what makes your community strong, not realizing what it values, not consciously thinking about what it can be, and what you want it to be can spell death for you community. Attracting big box stores isn’t a bad thing but it was for this one, because they lost what made them great and what was already making them successful. Without deep understanding of who your community is, you risk trading away what you want most, for what you want now.

If you don’t know who you are, what makes you strong, what makes you weak, and what you want your community to become than it makes it difficult to market yourself. You will not be able to identify your brand, and your brand is what is so critical in making you attractive to prospective businesses, industries, and citizens. A business or industry may find a low tax regime and few regulations appealing, but to successfully move to a community they also need to attract employees. Employees don’t get excited about living in a community whose brand is low taxes. In fact, that isn’t a brand at all. Employees . . . people, want to live in a community that has a good quality of life for their family. When people buy a house they look for one they feel can be a home for them. When people look at communities they view it as an extension of the home they want to be in. Is your community branding itself to feel like home?

Branding yourself appropriately to feel like home and to be a great community people want to be a part of is very important. Actually, becoming a community that feels like home and that people want to be a part of is even more important, and is even more critical to your economic success. In fact, becoming that type of community is often an economic driver in itself. We often put these initiatives off to the side as ‘nice-to-haves’, but in reality, economic success requires investing in beautification, developing a vibrant arts community, celebrating cultural diversity, encouraging youth to return some day, and addressing the needs of the seniors in your community. Economic success often comes to communities that put those issues front and center.

Imagine the business opportunities that could arise from providing services to seniors in your community. I have seen communities attract seniors because there is an entire base of business services within the community to serve them. The existence of those businesses draws more seniors, which in turn draws more businesses. I watched communities grow because they have created what I call ‘boomerang programs’ that encourage youth to return after they are done school. They come home and bring their education with them, often starting businesses of their own. I know of communities that have developed an entire thriving niche economy that is all based around a thriving arts district. I have witnessed communities grow because they are beautiful places to be, and still others become tourism meccas because of their cultural or historic celebrations. What we think are often costs, with the right plan and a little work, often become economic drivers for our communities.

Finally, I can often judge the state of a community over one lunch meeting with their economic development officer. For many communities, the notion of economic development focuses only on attracting businesses. When that is the case, the economic development officer is often a lonely, frustrated person whose work is sabotaged by policy, isolated from the rest of the community, and limited to simply trying to get industries and businesses to move. Economic development is not about one particular hire, or simply taxes and regulations, or just about business. Economic development efforts don’t make a community great, a great community makes economic development efforts succeed.