Victorians may be unfamiliar with the term “design charette,” but they’re invited to a big one come October to have their say on the look and feel of the significant public spaces surrounding the new Johnson Street Bridge.
City council voted unanimously Thursday to seek community feedback on preferred ways to spend a public realm budget of $500,000, said Mayor Lisa Helps. The money is slated for landscaping, bike racks, benches, lighting, trash and recycling receptacles, drinking fountains, plazas and other amenities.
The space on both ends of the bridge constitutes “the city’s downtown living room,” Helps said. “I’m curious to see what we can come up with in concert with the public to make that living room beautiful, appealing, welcoming and so on.”
The charette — likely a half-day meeting — will bring urban design to the people. Even as residents make suggestions about what they would like to see, a landscape architect might be sketching out the ideas, Helps said. “It’s a visually engaging way to get information — I think people will be happy to give input.”
The budget is more than $300,000 less than what was approved in 2009 for the public spaces, but the city may be able to use its parks department, she said.
“We may be able to engage our very talented workers in doing the work, and then it’s just the cost of doing business,” Helps said. “We’ve got a very wise, very educated public with a very good sense of what welcoming spaces look and feel like, and I think we’ll be able to draw on that.”
The discussions will cover both the Vic West and Victoria ends of the bridge and the Janion and North Junk developments on either side.
About 300 responders have already told the city they want festival and event space, pedestrian and cycling options and a speed limit of 30 kilometres an hour in the areas. Both the city and developers of the Northern Junk and Janion sites want more integration of public spaces with private mixed-use housing and retail developments.
“There is this myth that beauty has to cost a lot of money,” Helps said. “If the suggestions that come forward from the public require a further investment, then that would be a council decision.”
The city approved $1.38 million for the so-called “public realm” budget, but about $300,000 was spent on an electrical conduit to light pedestrian and bicycle pathways. PCL Constructors was awarded about $500,000 for elements such as walls, paving stones for plazas, sidewalks and pathways.
