The Municipality of Chatham-Kent continues gathering public input on the new plan for the Downtown Chatham Centre (DCC).
A public meeting will be held Wednesday night and another public session will be held next week Wednesday to talk about the five options on the table for the DCC.
The first meeting is geared toward members of the arts, culture and library community -- providing them with an opportunity to share their input on proposed options. You can register for that meeting by clicking here.
The second session on September 20 is "designed for residents to provide valuable input on the proposed options presented to Chatham-Kent Council." You can register for that session by clicking here.
The new plan doesn't include a 4,000 seat entertainment complex with an arena at the DCC because the owners no longer believe it's feasible.
The owner group now plans to "revitalize" the mall and the municipality is being asked to buy the former Sears building and relocate the Civic Centre and some municipal services to the site at a cost of nearly $42.4 million.
Other options include doing nothing and addressing issues as needed, renovating the existing Civic Centre at a cost of $30-35 million, expanding the library and cultural centre that would bring the price tag up another $8.7-$10.8 million, and building a new Civic Centre at a new location with a price tag of $70-$80 million.
The new plan also means no more outdoor promenade and "no guaranteed bid" for the three existing municipal buildings, the Civic Centre, Chatham Library branch, and CK Museum/Thames Art Gallery, expected to be made redundant with the redevelopment of the DCC.
The municipality estimated the cost of renovating the former Sears building at $53 million and the parking garage at another $1.5 million. The municipality could recoup roughly $8.3 million if they sold the current Civic Centre and library branch. The Civic Centre is appraised at $6.6 million and the library branch is worth an estimated $1.66 million.
There's also a survey open to the public until September 22, 2023. You can find that by clicking here.
Mayor Darrin Canniff told CK Mornings with Chris, Allanah, and Matt in their weekly interview the public will be involved every step of the way and future meetings will be announced once a location is nailed down.
"If we do the DCC for instance, that's when we start talking about okay how big is the library going to be in there, how's it going to look, the museum, all of those different things, start laying out the design. Right now, we're not going to be talking about the design of anything, it's just the concepts of where would people like to see this," said Mayor Canniff.
A follow-up report is expected to come back to council on October 30, 2023 following the public consultation.
