Summerside has a road map for reviving its downtown and waterfront

The City of Summerside has big plans to revive its downtown core and waterfront area over the next 10 years.

Announced Monday, the plan will begin in its early stages immediately, and recommendations from a committee will be presented to city council by spring 2025.

"It is a longer-term goal for sure," said Deputy Mayor Cory Snow, who has been one of the main council members behind the planning so far.

"But there's a lot of things that we can do immediately ... to start making our downtown as attractive as possible for people."

Summerside's downtown has been in decline for years, Snow said, and this is an opportunity to make it more vibrant and welcoming for both residents and visitors.

"Recently we've seen either businesses move out, businesses shut down, short-term businesses come in that aren't necessarily having a positive impact to our downtown," he said. "So we need to make sure that we're doing what we can to be attractive and incentivize growth."

The first step will involve forming a downtown waterfront committee that will be subdivided into three teams: one for small businesses, one for infrastructure, and one for special projects.

Those teams will begin recruiting members immediately, and will each have three members of the public along with various representatives from the city, the Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Summerside Inc., Summerside Port Inc., and Holland College.

The teams will first meet this summer with the goal of holding public engagement sessions and presenting a plan to council by next spring. Adopting the plan will then take place over a 10-year period.

"We want it to be vibrant. We want it to be lively. We want it to be walkable," Snow said

'Our downtown has suffered'

Summerside was once a bustling port city with traffic, hotels and a waterfront full of tourists each summer.

But in recent decades, the city has seen businesses either close up shop entirely or move uptown where box stores and chain restaurants are located.

"Our downtown has suffered over the years for sure," said Alex Clark, owner of Evermoore Brewing on Water Street. "We've seen a lot of passionate people, though, move in and try and try and try."

Clark has owned the business for about five years now, and said he's glad to see the city jump in with a plan to grow.

"We need more businesses downtown, real businesses that are operating all year round," he said. "But that takes the right people, and I think having a city that's involved in that process, building it up and making the process a little easier for them is going to really help."

Monday's announcement included a new definition of what "downtown" means in Summerside — anything within a 10-minute walk from City Hall.

"We need to make it so that when people are coming to the city and thinking about doing business, they think about the downtown first," Snow said. "How can we attract new business or new visitors, new housing starts to our downtown?"

The downtown, according to documents from the city, can be subdivided into three parts: the historic downtown along Water Street to Central Street, the waterfront boardwalk from Central Street to the West End neighbourhood, and the port lands near Heather Moyse Drive.

City staff are hoping that the plan keeps its momentum, unlike the few last times Summerside tried to revamp, including 2014's waterfront vision and an urban core plan in 2016.

The city said in a news release that these initiatives started out strong but eventually "lost momentum."

But Snow said some aspects of those plans weren't for naught.

"There's a lot of visionary things in that document that still are relevant to today," he said. "So I don't think that was a waste of time."

'This is a good spend'

But there has been some growth in Summerside recently, with new buildings being constructed in the downtown area and a growing population.

The deputy mayor said it's a turning point for the city.

"Either we do something to spur change, so effectively look at all the options we have to make sure that positive changes are coming, or we allow it to just take its own course," he said.

Snow said the plan will be financed through the city's annual budgets over the coming years, and may include incentives for businesses and developments.

"Ultimately the taxpayers, the City of Summerside and the business community, they'll be the ones paying for this. That's where our money comes from," he said. "But as we grow and continue to grow, that's a positive for our city. So there's always good spends and this is a good spend."

Rose Dennis, executive director of Downtown Summerside and Explore Summerside, said once change begins to happen, it will spur more.

Dennis hopes that in a few years' time, Summerside will once again have a bustling downtown.

"People have picked downtown so they would have a vibrant life and have access to all of it quite readily," Dennis said.

As public consultation ramps up over the coming months, Dennis encourages everyone who may have a stake in Summerside's growth to speak up.

"We are welcoming. We are wanting you to be here. And so we want to talk with you and hear your ideas," she said.

"There's going to be a lot of opportunity for people in the public that aren't in these organizations that typically are making the plans to have a voice, and we want to hear from you."