Phase two of Sarnia's Waterfront Master Plan is now underway.
Re: Public Urbanism Planner Paul Hicks said the second phase will be more exciting, focusing on the visioning and programming.
"The visioning and programming phase of the project is going to take us into early September, at which time again, we'll be reporting back to council," said Hicks. "This is where we're going to be taking the two parts of background information that we've got, the analytical part and the idea part, and we're going to be combining them to develop two to three different concept plans."
Hicks said the community is looking for a balance of active and passive programming, general improvements, the ability to have a drink or meal and more connections between the waterfront and downtown.
"With those preliminary concept plans, we'll be identifying a preferred concept, and once we've identified that preferred concept, then we'll enter into the third phase of the project, which is actually developing the master plan report and implementation plan and budgeting around that."
Hicks hopes to complete the plan by year's end.
"That will take us through September, October and into November. We're looking for a wrap up into November, potentially early December, with the project."
Hicks was very impressed by the amount of community input received during phase one, including over 1,600 responses to a survey posted on Speak Up Sarnia.
"The majority of responses were from those that actually live in the downtown area, or quite close to the waterfront. But, there was quite an even spread of responses through the rest of the city of Sarnia. Very few outside of the city answered that survey."
Hicks added that over 200 people attended a pop up consultation at the waterfront July 3.
Sarnia council has also directed staff to prepare a report for the 2022 budget, which would consider starting another waterfront report focusing on the area from Canatara Park to Bright's Grove.
