The Town of Okotoks is moving forward with its downtown rebranding initiative despite disappointment in its most recent consultant report.
Members of the Downtown Steering Committee say they didn’t get enough bang for their buck after consultant Michael von Hausen visited Okotoks in September to host an architectural guidelines workshop. The consultation cost $6,264.
Jody Sanderson, steering committee member, said a report drawn up after the meeting repeated much of what came out of a week-long boot camp facilitated by tourism consultant Roger Brooks in January.
“None of this is new, is it?” Sanderson said to Okotoks council on Nov. 28. “We need an urban plan for downtown, that has been recommended over and over. And that’s what we’re looking for, is what is it actually going to look like at street level, and that didn’t happen.”
Von Hausen’s study included recommendations such as investing in more public gathering spaces and programmable spaces like the Olde Towne Okotoks plaza, promoting the warm and welcoming atmosphere of Okotoks, consolidating the main street under one name (Elizabeth Street), including more active transportation options like bicycle routes and better pedestrian lighting, and using more consistent signage.
Sanderson said they’ve heard it all before.
“To me, all of this is eight months later, the whole town got to do what we did in four or five days in our boot camp,” she said. “This is not what we expected, the committee was frustrated.”
Though they feel the consultant wasn’t what they expected, Sanderson said the committee still has a passion to get the ball rolling and implement ideas and changes in town.
The Town’s goal is to have a downtown master area redevelopment plan and proposed land use bylaw amendments in place by June 30 to define and accommodate architectural guidelines and development goals.
Michael MacIntyre, development services director for the Town, said the urban planning and design should be manageable in that timeframe, with public consultation to follow.
“It’s fairly clear it’s the physical design of the downtown and the architectural style and character we really need to define,” said MacIntyre. “That is going to take more hands-on work and engagement with the community.”
He said the Town wants to avoid developing a “top-shelf document” and have a living plan that will deliver results in the short term.
MacIntyre said he found the von Hausen report helped determine the necessary next steps, such as design exercises involving more participants from the downtown to develop a vision for Okotoks rather than borrowing ideas from other communities where consultants have worked.
“The next stage is to start drawing out what Okotoks could look like in terms of the downtown, building on the existing architecture and things like what are we going to do in terms of façade improvement and utility development,” said MacIntyre.
He said expecting von Hausen to develop an urban design complete with architectural guidelines during a two-day workshop would have been a tall order.
“I understand it’s disappointing for the committee, which was hoping for more substance out of it,” said MacIntyre. “That is disappointing. Hopefully we can compensate for that in terms of the next stage.”
Okotoks CAO Elaine Vincent said the next steps include creating a checklist of what can be done now and making real, tangible changes in the downtown to get the momentum flowing.
“That ‘act now’ piece and that consolidation of a downtown function is very first and foremost in our minds,” said Vincent. “If (the Downtown Steering Committee) could help us on that ‘act now’ piece, I think that could help us to move forward quickly in some other areas.”
