The Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) has begun the process of mapping out the future of a centrally located town-owned parcel of land in downtown Thornbury.
In June of last year, TBM purchased 15 and 17 Arthur Street West for $875,000, which was funded by development charges, with the intent of transforming the plot of land into a permanent paid-parking lot.
“The COVID-19 crisis and the lack of space for dealing with proper social distancing on our main street have served to highlight the need for additional parking space in our downtown core, and council agreed that now was the time to address the parking issue,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever.
Earlier this week, TBM council voted in favour of establishing a community hub on the same parcel of land until the project becomes shovel ready.
Town staff say they intend to harness the community hub over the summer months to draw more attention to the project.
“Using this space as a temporary community space will be really helpful to get some active engagement on the design concept of the parking lot,” said Shawn Carey, director of operations for TBM.
“We'll have some signs with some QR-codes where people can have a look or provide their input on the project website, and provide information to the town staff in terms of how we're looking at designing it,” he continued.
According to Carey, the request for proposals (RFP) for the engineering work was issued shortly after council passed the 2021 budget in February.
The town is currently in the process of working with the lowest bidder but the contract for the project has yet to be secured.
Through the RFP process the town will be looking for respondents to outline how they will maximize the parking potential in the space and how stormwater will be managed.
The RFP also asked for details on lighting, landscaping, and must include green or alternatives options for the parking lot design.
“Low-impact design is an option if it works. Sometimes low-impact design is tough in our municipality, given our soils in certain areas. But absolutely, those will be considerations,” Carey said.
Town staff will also be putting a specific focus on establishing buffers around the lot.
“We want to make sure that we're actually putting some green effort into this parking lot as well, in terms of landscaping, and ensuring that residents around the area actually have some adequate buffers,” Carey said.
A bicycle corral and seating are also expected to be included in the design.
“We need to figure out how we can make this as multi-use as possible,” Soever added.
The public consultation process for the project is expected to take place throughout the summer months, with construction anticipated to begin in late 2021, early 2022.
