Residents get a peek at Sudbury’s updated Downtown Master Plan

City staff had displays and representatives available at a Community Session on Wednesday at Place des Art to highlight Sudbury’s vision for its downtown core. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News)

Residents in Sudbury got a sneak peek this week at what will be in the final draft of the city’s updated Downtown Master Plan.

City staff had displays and representatives available at a Community Session on Wednesday at Place des Art to highlight Sudbury’s vision for its downtown core.

“People are starting to see the opportunities again downtown, especially with the new event centre coming,” said Jeff MacIntyre, executive director of Downtown Sudbury.

“The art gallery, the library, the multicultural centre -- all of those things are coming together and we’re starting to see that buzz return.”

This was the third community session in the past year for the city to gather public input for the updated Downtown Master Plan. Wednesday’s event included feedback from previous sessions.

Originally approved in 2012, the Downtown Master Plan outlines ways to revitalize downtown through economic, cultural and retail activity. The updated plan is meant to reflect current priorities.

Events centre, cultural hub

“The major things are how are we reacting to the event centre and the cultural hub,” said Ed Landry, senior planner for Greater Sudbury.

“What do we need to put around those projects to support those projects, but also to support downtown revitalization. There are ideas for residential development, hotel development, more commercial development. So all these ideas are coming through.”

Landry said taking up more space in this latest plan are social aspects like livability and well-being in the downtown, but much of those details and actions are already within the city’s homelessness initiatives.

“People care about downtown,” McIntyre said.

“There’s a massive, partial population that really wants to see downtown thriving again. And we’re getting people come out and add their comments and add those contributions so that it’s a real community-wide plan.”

“There are others throughout Greater Sudbury, too, that may want to stay involved,” Landry said.

“So we want to keep identifying those champions and continue to breathe life into this plan. So, make it livable throughout its next 10 years.”

A draft of the updated plan will be presented to city council in late January or early February. If city council adopts the blueprint, Landry said city staff will return later in the year with a 10-year action strategy to implement the plan.