The Regional District of Nanaimo is nearing the completion on its Cedar Main Street Design project draft.
The project is slightly behind schedule, but Greg Keller, a senior planner for the RDN, said the regional district expects to present it for public consultation this fall or early spring.
Keller said the RDN is trying to engage community support and get feedback about the design details to ensure that it meshes with community ideas.
“It’s really community-based in terms of the draft,” said Keller.
First, the draft will be presented to the citizens’ advisory group, a committee of about 20 people representing businesses, property owners and residents in the Cedar area, to provide recommendations to the regional district.
The advisory group’s meetings are open to the public and people can attend them and provide feedback.
After the advisory group sends its recommendations to the RDN the district will hold community meetings to gather further feedback from residents.
Earlier this year, about 80 Cedar residents took part in a design charette to create concepts for Cedar’s main street and came up with 14 ideas.
Those ideas were presented to residents through an online questionnaire for feedback.
Keller said the September questionnaire didn’t receive as strong a response from the public as the RDN expected, and he is hoping for more public participation during the upcoming public consultation process.
The Cedar Main Street Design project was created after the RDN conducted its Official Community Plan review.
The RDN found that people in Cedar wanted to support more community diversity, create and preserve the community identity, provide opportunities for local employment and have a community that includes a variety of housing types.
The RDN included a new land use designation, Cedar Main Street, which applies to lands located on both sides of Cedar Road between MacMillan and Hemer roads.
The Cedar Main Street designation will include local commercial, professional office space, personal services, residential, recreation and mixed use.
The intent of the designation is to create a vibrant place where residents can shop, access services, socialize, work and enjoy recreational activities.
People can sign up on the RDN website to receive e-mail alerts about the Cedar Main Street Design project or other projects the regional district is working on. Please go to www.rdn.bc.ca to sign up for e-mail alerts.
For more information or to comment on the project please go to www.cedarmainstreetconcepts.com or e-mail cedarmainstreet@rdn.bc.ca.