New plan for Point Douglas aims to revitalize one of city's oldest neighbourhoods
City hired consultant to develop secondary plan for Point Douglas
The City of Winnipeg wants Point Douglas residents to help come up with a new plan that will help guide the future development of one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods.
Over the next few months, the city will hold consultations on a new secondary plan, which will determine what types of housing gets built and what it will look like, as well as inform decisions about future transit, industrial and transportation development.
"The amount of things that could happen there are endless," said Point Douglas Coun. Vivan Santos, whose ward includes the largely industrial southern portion of the Point Douglas neighbourhood.
In the past, land use decisions in the neighbourhood happened without a dedicated neighbourhood plan, leading to residences butting up against industrial areas.
Industrial buildings in the area have posed a safety concern for residents, such as when the former Vulcan Iron Works building burned down last summer.
There have been several more fires since then, including two this past weekend.
"When I had met with some of the stakeholders, developers that own many of the warehouses, they were very interested in converting their warehouses to residential units. So you can't do that under its current zone and you need a secondary plan," Santos said.
Santos' wish list includes more green space and active transportation, such as connecting the northern and southern portions of the Trans Canada Trail. She would also like to see more housing developed along the future eastern leg of the bus rapid transit system, which is slated to run along Sutherland Avenue.
Senior city planner James Platt says the plan will outline where future industrial development can occur. It will also set rules around building size and character, and ensure parks and other amenities are within walking distance of residences.
"The timing of this plan is ideal, with a future bus rapid transit route being planned along Sutherland Avenue and also with the federal government [funding] related to accelerating housing development," Platt said.
Future development in Point Douglas could follow a similar path as the nearby Waterfront Drive, which was also previously heavily industrialized, but now includes a mix of residential and commercial buildings.
"There's some sites in there that very much needed a lot of remediation in order to put residences there. I imagine Point Douglas isn't much different," Platt said.
Santos teamed up with Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie, who represents the northern half of the community, to hire a consultant to develop the plan. The two councillors combined funding from their wards' share of the federal Canada Community-Building Fund.
"What the Point Douglas Residents Committee has been saying for quite a number of years now — residential and industrial are not a good fit," Eadie said.
Richard Milgrom, head of the city planning department at the University of Manitoba, says several other neighbourhoods in Winnipeg have secondary plans, and it's time Point Douglas had one too.
"Places in the inner city, like Point Douglas, have needed more direction to try to figure out what the vision is for the future for that neighbourhood."
The city will hold consultations over the coming months with community members.
The plan is expected to go before council early next year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
