What's old will become new in the Sault: Sault Ste. Marie to rejuvenate downtown with new strategy.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: DESIGN-BUILD

A decade after Sault Ste. Marie first developed its downtown development initiative, the city is re-evaluating its priorities to put a fresh spin on how to rejuvenate the city core.

Kicking off 2016, the city looked back over the last 10 years to see how the city had fared with its last plan, using that as a stepping off point for the overhauled strategy, said Victoria Prouse, project coordinator for the Sault's Downtown Development Initiative.

The initial plan, outlined in 2006, focused on public realm investment and providing incentives for private development. In 10 years, the downtown had $84 million in investment, based on commercial and residential building permits.

"What we identified was that there has been a lot of momentum downtown--we've seen a lot of really cool things happening--but we're still facing these systemic issues of vacancies, a lack of connection or feeling a sense of place to the downtown," she said.

"We have a very distinct population--over one-third are seniors, 40 per cent live alone, and nearly half are low income--so creating a more balanced downtown neighbourhood is also a priority."

The result, following extensive public consultation, is a new strategy that includes six pillars for action.

The first priority is to preserve the downtown as a city core, recognizing that having people, activity and business concentrated in an area helps to create a well-defined area.

Secondly, the city wants to develop more residential options for the downtown.

With the third pillar, the city wants to encourage more programming and activities in the downtown core. This includes making it easier for outside organizations to host events, and streamlining protocols governing things like downtown patios to make them easier to access.

"One thing that the planning department has come to realize is that we can't just build a beautiful space and then be done with it, walk away; it's really only the start," Prouse said.

"And to get people comfortable with the space, to get people to develop that sense of attachment to the space, we need to create activities and opportunities for them to engage in that space, so that's also very important for us."

The fourth pillar involves continuing to invest in public sector spaces to encourage private investment. The theory, said Prouse, is that the city can't expect private developers to invest in the space if the city won't invest itself.

So, the city has started investing in the public realm, such...