An over $3.2 million plan has been unveiled aimed at addressing safety and security, tackling blight, and bringing more businesses and people to downtown Windsor.
The new Strengthen the Core—Downtown Windsor Revitalization Plan was unveiled Tuesday after months of public surveys and consultations with stakeholders and the public to address concerns related to the city centre.
The plan announced by Mayor Drew Dilkens features seven proposed initial action items focused on creating safe streets, enforcing property standards, seeking improved wrap-around programs for vulnerable community members, incentives to bring more businesses downtown, and a improved promotion of the core.
The city will have a dedicated Ward 3 bylaw property standards enforcement officer, and council will be looking to create or modify existing bylaws to address blight.
Dilkens says we get what we tolerate, that's on the human behaviour side, but it's also on the property standards side.
"We want to make sure that we are addressing the issues that we see that are leading to some of the blight that we see in the downtown core," he says. "All of these things need to work together—it's policing, it's bylaw enforcement, it's social services and support—all of them have to work together to see success. We believe this plan has all of the key elements that will make a difference in strengthening the core."
Dilkens says they are going to do proactive enforcement to address property standards because right now we are mainly reactive.
"We are looking at a defined area where we are going to find and go up and down the streets and find issues that are going unaddressed and take corrective action," he says. "We can't see the success that we hope to see unless we actually move forward in a way that looks at human behaviours, looks at the building enforcement and bylaw standards that we have, and looks at how we can make a difference to strengthen the core."
Elements of the plan include incentives for developers to convert existing buildings into residential units, increasing financial penalties for unkept properties, and exploring the creation of short-term city-funded incentives to stimulate the activation of current vacant commercial spaces.
Dilkens says, along with enforcing property standards, the proposal also calls for incentives for developers to convert existing buildings into residential units.
"We're looking at targeted incentives through our community improvement plans that will actually try to drive the behaviour and outcomes we hope to see," he says. "It's worked; in 2017 we launched our first downtown CIP, and we've seen some success with that. So we think if we target some of the investment for a defined period of time, we'll see even more success than we hope to see."
The proposal also calls for 12 more officers to be added to the Windsor Police City Central Patrol Team to address drug use and disorderly conduct, discouraging loitering and panhandling on medians and in front of empty storefronts and residential buildings in the downtown core.
The city and local healthcare leaders will also advocate to the upper levels of government for the funding required to implement and expand social service initiatives based on each government's area of responsibility and priorities.
There will also be a focus on securing provincial funding for a low-barrier, transitional care facility where individuals experiencing an immediate mental health and/or addictions crisis can be provided with care tailored to their needs, and extending Homelessness and Housing Help Hub (H4) hours of operation to ensure people who are unhoused have a facility they can access prior to the opening of overnight emergency shelters.
An administration report will be going to the May 13 meeting of council for approval of an immediate action strategy to help address some of the urgent priorities, identify the budget requirements to support the plan, and request that financing of the plan proceed to a budget amendment process to allow work to begin.
Click here to find the report going to council for approval.