Deep River is asking for public input into its “Downtown Streetscape and Waterfront Enhancement Strategy,” and not for the first time.
The strategy has been a work in progress for the last four years, and focuses largely on bringing tourism traffic from Highway 17 to the downtown core, along with connectivity beyond that to the waterfront.
It’s been prepared by the consulting firm FOTENN Planning + Design, which has estimated the overall cost of the downtown plan at $12.5 million.
The consultants first presented the strategy to the town in the fall of 2022, and made a number of key changes to it based on public input received at that time.
Key among those changes, a proposed building envelope along Ridge Road was reduced to avoid blocking views of the Ottawa River.
The draft strategy also called for the Community Centre to be replaced with a parking lot, but the consulting firm instead called for that building to stay in place, until the end of its lease with the town in 2032.
The planners also backed off from a controversial proposal to replace the existing angle parking for vehicles along Champlain Street with parallel parking, stating in their final report that “part” of that angle parking can now be retained.
The planners are recommending the overall strategy be implemented in four phases, with the first seeing improvements made to signage and retail facades downtown, along with the installation of street furniture both downtown and along the waterfront trail…
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