Kingston reimagining public spaces for pedestrians and businesses downtown

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Ontario Construction News staff owner

Over the next few weeks, Kingston staff will move forward with implementing a plan to create more public spaces for pedestrians and businesses in the downtown core. The plan includes a series of road and lane closures come into effect during the week of June 22 to create “opportunities for new, creative experiences aimed at rejuvenating the downtown over the next several months.”

“We’re living in unprecedented times where we must respond to existing challenges by being open to new ideas and innovative approaches,” said Mayor Bryan Paterson.

“We are reimagining a few of our public spaces by opening up some downtown streets to pedestrians. This will also allow businesses more room to operate with physical distancing and help residents to shop local in a safe way.”

City staff will also be working with Downtown Kingston! (DBIA) and Tourism Kingston to explore opportunities to animate the reimagined space by partnering with the cultural community.

Once implemented, road and lane closures are expected to be in effect until the fall:

Brock Street will be fully closed from Ontario to Wellington. The King Street intersection will remain open for traffic traveling along King.

Clarence Street will see some existing on-street parking repurposed to accommodate a lane shift.

Market Street will be fully closed.

Princess Street will see the closure of all on-street parking spaces and a single travel lane from Ontario to Division. Cross-streets will remain fully open. Some on-street parking areas on these cross-streets will be changed to create short-term parking spaces for curbside pick-up and deliveries.

City staff will work with the DBIA to identify weekends when sections of Princess St. could be fully closed while keeping cross-streets open.

The parking lay-bys located within these closed areas will be made available to businesses to expand their operations outdoors. This may include placement of retail fixtures, patio furniture and space for customer line-ups.

City staff will work with individual businesses to accommodate their outdoor space needs as much as possible and may consider closing some parking lay-bys on cross-streets for businesses to expand their operations outdoors.

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