Allandale Village Council Pres Low Res

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SOLUTIONS ink I 1856 Quantz Crescent I Innisfil I ON I L9S 1X2 I 705 791-3981 I info@solulionsink.ca

SOLUTIONS ink specializes in strategic planning and communications strategy and
management. Solutions' consulting services include communications strategy and design, as
well as strategic planning and policy development. With the leadership of William Moore, and
his 20 years of cultural project experience, Solutions' work spans the spectrum of arts and
cultural activity. These include community integration within cultural projects, cultural activity
measurement, cultural capital investment strategies and municipal and other government
cultural planning and policy development.
Selected Projects:
Ontario Arts Council Strategic Plan • Georgian College School of Design & Visual Art's
Communications, Strategic and Relocation Plan • YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka Special Strategic
Communications Plan • The 10 Year Culture Plan for the City of Barrie – Building a Creative
Future • Arts, Culture & Heritage Impact and Opportunity – The Big Bay Point Development •
Rene M. Caisse Memorial Theatre – Capital Development Fundraising & Organizational Plan
• The Gibson Centre – Program Analysis and Direction Plan • The Campus Gallery Strategic
Plan • Ottawa Chamber Music Festival Strategic Plan • Advisor – George Metcalf Foundation
Theatre Arts Program • Roxy Theatre Conversion • Barrie Downtown Theatre Business Plan

On April 6, 2009, City Council asked that:
• That because of significant public interest and concern
regarding the design and layout of the proposed Allandale
Station redevelopment that a public consultation process as
the next step in the proposed development;
• And that detailed notes be kept of the public comments as
part of the consultation process.

In response to Council’s Request:
• The YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka and the Correct Group of
Companies (CGC) conducted a series of community
consultations.
• They selected SOLUTIONS ink to obtain the participation,
insight and vision of Barrie and Allandale residents, as well as
community stakeholders.
• This process was designed to inform the development
proponents and the City of Barrie of the community vision,
needs, uses and directions for the development of the
Allandale station lands as the project moved to the final
planning stage.

SOLUTIONS ink & experience with similar projects:
• SOLUTIONS ink interpreted the community consolations of
over 500 people across this province for the creation of the
Ontario Arts Council Strategic Plan 2008 to 2013.
• From these interviews and consolations a logic model was
created for the direction for the strategic plan to deal with
over 1,300 individual artists and 880 arts organizations in 252
communities across Ontario to achieve over $60M in funding.
• Conducted 20 key-person interviews for the Ottawa Chamber
Music Festival — the largest chamber music festival in the
world,
• Interpreted interview data in preparation for the festival’s
strategic plan.

Community Consultation Process
The community consultation process was directly supported by
the YMCA in response to Barrie City Council's request.
However, the report's conclusions and recommendations have not
been directed, altered, or influenced by either the YMCA or CGC.
The report you now have is intended to inform Council and staff
of community expectation, feedback, and the remarkable
connection the Allandale community has to the railway lands and
to the station itself.
SOLUTIONS ink was impressed with the quality and insight of the
consultation response.
Many of the respondents were happy to have a voice leaving one
to say:

"The level of public input and consultation on this project has not only been
exemplary, but is also unprecedented in the City of Barrie.
This is not only appreciated, but vital. It is, after all, essential that this
historic redevelopment represent our past, our culture, and who we are
today.
But culture is not static, and nor is our history. This redevelopment should
not settle for capturing a snapshot of who we are now, but strive to honour
the past, respect the present, and be flexible enough to propel us forward for
decades to come."
Allandale consultation respondent

The Consultation Process had three stages:
1) June 11th Open House at City Hall Rotunda.
2) June 16th, Community Consultation Session at the Southshore
Centre.
3) The Creative Allandale arts, culture & heritage vision interviews.

1) June 11th
Open House at City Hall Rotunda
• This was an information session
where the Y, CGC and the city staff
attended and answered questions
about the station lands project
direction in its conceptual stage and
the process of moving to final design.
• Feedback from this session was
noted and was directed at the design
for the following consultations.
• Approximately 40 attended.

2) June 16th Community Consultation – Southshore Centre
• An in-depth Allandale Village community consultation to
inform CGC and the Y of community vision, needs, possible
uses and directions for the Allandale station lands site
development as it moved into its final planning stage.
• Space was limited and there was a sign-up through the
YMCA.
• The process included an introduction and remarks by the city,
CGC and the Y.
• The 100 attendees moved to breakout sessions that dealt
with 11 questions.
• There was a report-back from each table giving a summary
and allowing for a Q&A to take place on each question.

2nd
Consultation — Breakout Session Questions:

3) The Creative Allandale arts, culture & heritage vision
interviews
• These interviews were held over the summer and fall.
• Over 80 hours of key-person confidential interviews were held
with community leaders, creative industries and arts
community stakeholders — 60 requests with 54 respondents.
• The meetings and email interviews dealt with 4 questions
ranging from the big development picture, to the train station,
public spaces and programming, and finally to the commercial
development.
• It must be said that four contacted key organizations chose
not to participate in the key-person interviews: ROAR; Barrie
Chamber of Commerce; Heritage Barrie, and; the Barrie
Historical Society.

Key-Person Interviews — Questions:

Contacted Organizations and Community Leaders:
Visual Arts Organizations; Performing Arts Organizations; Film,
Video and Cinema Organizations; Heritage Organizations; Arts
Advisory Organizations; Educators; Arts Education Organizations;
Community Organizations; Municipal Government; Political
Leaders; Arts Leaders; Business Leaders; Cultural Festivals;
Media; Arts Service Organizations; Arts Advisory Organizations;
Business Advocacy Organizations; Creative Industries –
architects, landscape architects, artists, engineering; Creative
Industries – designers, advertising, education, heritage planning,
creative other development including software and web design.

Six Themes Emerged:
1. Connect to the past and Allandale's identity
2. Connect to the Allandale community
3. Connect to the environment
4. Connect to the waterfront, downtown, Allandale and beyond
5. Connect to technology – wired, a place of the future
6. Connect to culture and the creative economy

"The ghost of old Allandale lives in that building. The cultural, community
identity of Allandale persists even a hundred years later. So many still say
they are from Allandale, something that almost never happens in the rest
of Barrie. Allandale is still Allandale and the station is its personification.
The station should not be a museum with artifacts – it is the artifact itself,
it should be just that and there for people to see and feel its form and
spaces."

1. Connect to the past and Allandale's identity
• Create an understanding of how Allandale Village came to be.
• Reinforce history in landscaping, signage, and within the
programming offered there.
• The connection to the past should be personified in the
restored train station.
• Layers of history should be revealed in its geological and
aboriginal beginnings, its settlement, the creation of
Allandale, the Y’s beginnings, and the importance of rail and
marine transportation should be expressed.
• This connection to the past should be utilized to attract
tourism and reinforce a community core and centre within
Allandale.

2. Connect to the Allandale community
• What happens at the site should connect to the Allandale
community, their wellness and their needs.
• The historic Allandale neighbourhood should be seen as an
extension of Allandale Village with the village development
itself taking a role as a civic and community centre.
• The no-build zone in front of the station along with its historic
connection should become Allandale's public square.
• This square should be the gathering spot for Allandale, just as
Memorial Square could be for the centre of the downtown.

3. Connect to the environment
• Make this development as green as possible and minimize its
carbon footprint.
• Use green technologies and even heat generated by the
nearby water treatment plant.
• Inspire a healthy lifestyle by being as walkable as possible.
• Encourage the use of public transportation and reduce car
use.
• Develop alternate modes of transportation and enhance the
pedestrian environment in general.
• Reduce parking code requirement to stimulate the use of
transit and other modes of transport.

4. Connect to the waterfront, downtown, Allandale and beyond
• Design should create a connection to the waterfront,
downtown and Allandale.
• Utilize the landscaping to restore historic connection to the
waterfront through design and surfacing of Lakeshore.
• Include a pedestrian-friendly zone that responds to the
no-build zone.
• Create a unique and noticeable transportation connection
between Allandale Village and the downtown such as a
trolley, or a double-decker bus and even a water taxi.
• GO Transit is a direct connection to jobs and tourism — make
Allandale Village the access point to Barrie and beyond.

5. Connect to technology – wired, a place of the future
• Utilize state of the art communications technology on the site
like fiberoptics.
• Be a Wi-Fi friendly zone.
• As part of the site identity consider having a digital wall that
could animate the site, tell its story, and be used for public-
space gatherings such as film festivals and concerts.
• Use technology to attract creative economy workers and
businesses to the commercial component of the site
potentially making it a “creative economy zone”
• Focus businesses and employment of the estimated 20,000
Barrie creative workers on the site.

6. Connect to culture and the creative economy
• Like the Distillery District, commercial development on the
site should focus on the creative economy.
• The site's architectural uniqueness, location, connection to the
GO, to child care and the Y's many community and health
benefits make this a prime location for the creative worker.
• Connecting to the arts will support the commercial viability by
adding to the station's unique and authentic experience.
• Connect the site to significant arts organizations, tourism
organizations, arts festivals and concerts.
• Place cornerstone arts and education organizations like the
Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame on the site.

"Halifax, Lunenburg, Kingston and Hamilton have all realized great
urban renewal with adaptive and creative reuse.
These examples all highlight the fact that heritage buildings are used
most effectively as public cultural spaces. Combining culture and
heritage results in more than the sum of its parts."
"There should be a strong sense of Heritage however I don't feel this
is necessary for the entire site, the train station and immediate area
yes, however beyond that creative and ecologically responsible
architecture can be functional and attract tourists in a manner that
is sensitive to the heritage theme."

"For hundreds of years train stations have been the hub for tourism,
both for visitors arriving and residents leaving to their destinations.
To this day, throughout Europe trains are still the major mode of
travel for both domestic and international tourist travelling to their
holiday destinations.
I believe the Allandale Train Station's future development should
consider the long term opportunities of becoming a major hub for
train travel to the "north" for GTA residents, domestic and
international travellers.
The Allandale Train Station should have the infrastructure, systems
and management to be first and foremost the centre for
transportation delivering tourism to Allandale and Barrie, this region
and beyond."

"What drives economic growth are not companies that do things
more efficiently; the real key is to create new things, new work and
new kinds of jobs. That comes from people living in a community.
When we build these kind of cities, we make each other more
productive."
Richard Florida, speaking in Barrie last year
"Great cities aren't built on tourism, they create great people-spaces
which locals embrace and tourists want to visit. Tourists follow the
locals to great spaces, so build what the locals need....There needs
to be a retail component that supports the immediate community, and
what I hope is a residential component of the commercial area."

Context – Allandale Identity

Context – Allandale and Development
The Allandale consultation respondents, as a whole, had
significant insight into the opportunity of the station lands to
achieve needed revitalization and restore the identity and
opportunity of Allandale. Some felt the Allandale development
also has the potential to achieve a number of council's strategic
priorities for 2007-2010:
• Ensure a balanced approach to growth management through
intensification;
• Implement revitalization plans for the city core;
• Enhance public spaces, and;
• Position Barrie at the forefront of environmental issues and
solutions.

Context – Historic Allandale/Future Allandale/Creative Allandale
There was a strength of opinion within the creative sector that the
mix of cultural, historic, services, transportation and high-tech
could make Allandale this region's Dublin. The feeling was: Focus
on attracting "brain/creative-based" people – the software
designers, the artists, the architects – here and they will come and
work because of the remarkable combination of geography,
neighbourhood, amenities, and place.
One respondent commented:
"Technology, culture and creative industries will do for Allandale
now, what rail did for it then."

Context – Allandale Village—an urban adventure
The Allandale Village development has the potential to deal with
a number of requirements of Places to Grow:
• Creating Transit-supportive communities;
• Protection of the environment, and;
• Provide mix of housing, jobs, recreation, culture and
community services.
Some respondents noted this and felt that this was not just an
issue, but a profound opportunity. One respondent commented
that it was a good thing the earlier development attempts failed
because:
"This is the right time for Allandale; the stars are aligned."

"The site should layer history in its spaces. The public areas should
be comfortable and create an atmosphere of everyday use.
It is the built-form used as culture to create an authentic sense of
community space – a flexible, multi-use people space, a gathering
place."

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Allandale Village Development – Premise for Recommendations
Development Premise 1 — YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka
YMCA site investment, especially the train station, must support
the business and charitable objectives and community program
obligations of the YMCA and be sustainable beyond the capital
investment stage understanding that the station will require
ongoing commitment in perpetuity.

Premise 2 — The Correct Group of Companies
Site investment must support the business objectives of CGC and
create a viable return on investment.
Premise 3 — City of Barrie
Site investment, approvals and servicing must support the
sustainable planning and waterfront vision objectives that the City
of Barrie has for the downtown, its waterfront and Allandale.

Summary of Consultation Recommendation Directions:
1. The architectural vision for Allandale Village should support the
restoration of the identity of Allandale and incorporate superb
public spaces that connect to the waterfront and to old Allandale
in design that combines old with new in a way that preserves the
dignity of the historic, and where the new represents its time, and
is deserving of contemporary architectural attention for its
excellence.

2. The Allandale Station is seen as a community asset and
Barrie should consider retaining ownership of the train station
or, if not, create an agreement with the YMCA for the
direction for community access, programming and, as well,
the development of a co-maintenance agreement to support
the station's preservation in perpetuity.
"I am content with the Y owning the train station because it puts
it in a kind of public ownership.
In a way the buildings belong to the public, belongs to Allandale.
People will learn about Allandale from that building and it makes
me wonder why Barrie just doesn't keep it? "

3. Design the ‘no-build zone' in front of the station as an active
civic public cultural space and restore its relationship with the
waterfront. Barrie should consider removing the no-build zone
from the development lands and retain, culturally program,
and operate it as city property – Allandale Village Square

4. Animate the complete site through signage and other means
to build community and visitor understanding of the historical
significance of the site and of old Allandale itself.
Allandale YMCA- 1908

6. Restore the interior of the train station in an adaptive-reuse
mode that is in-keeping with the station's original interior
ambience, but that allows the maximization of flexible
community program use.
CNR Allandale Superintendents Office ca 1920s

7. Allow for Allandale Station to be a living heritage artifact,
available to the community and visitors. Do not place a
museum in the building because of possible damage to the
building from museum environmental controls.

8. The Culture Department should program all arts, culture and
heritage activities in the public areas, including the
recommended outdoor performance centre.
"A youth arts centre would make a huge difference to building
the arts and creativity in Barrie. It would be for our youth to
begin to build their creative selves.
There could be a small gallery, a performance area, studios for
art and to practice their cello or whatever instrument they are
working with. For them it would be an alternative to non-creative
activity.
It could build our creative future from the spirit, creativity and
commitment of our youth."

9. Build a green development by maximizing the use of green
technologies and minimizing the development's carbon
footprint and possibly use the heat generated by the nearby
water treatment plant for the development.

10. Work with Tourism Barrie to create a tourism strategic plan
for the site and consider asking Tourism Barrie to relocate in
Allandale Village.

11. Focus ground-floor retail on the needs of the immediate
community, commuters and tourists.
"Integrate into a mixed-use residential, retail, institutional
environment. Allandale develop along the lines of St. Lawrence
Market district, with retail at ground level and a variety of
residentialandcommercial/institutionaloptionsabove,including
townhomes, low-rise and high-rise condominiums. Some of the
units offered as co-op or rent geared-to-income units, perhaps
in partnership with the federal government, a complete
community."

12. Focus the commercial leased space on cultural organizations
and creative industries including design, architectural,
advertising, education, heritage planning, software
developers, web design and others, and market directly to
this creative sector first.

"The commercial leased spaces should be directed at creative cultural
industries, it should be the ‘brain trust' of Barrie. It should be a place
where the creative industries are intensified, where software, architects
and other kinds of design firms can flourish and create in an atmosphere
of creative exchange.
It should be Allandale's Silicon Valley. Think about it. Where would you
want to create, work and collaborate? Waterfront, the Y to workout,
childcare, walkable and bikable, restaurants and cafés, the train station
and a town-square – what could be a better place to be creative?"

13. Wire the site with technologies like fiberoptic and Wi-Fi to
maximize the site's potential for creative industries and brand
it as Allandale's high-tech centre.

14. Brand Allandale Village as an intensified mixed-used
development, in-keeping with Barrie's commitment to Places
to Grow, that is a unique combination of heritage, culture,
recreation, community programs and high-tech.

15. Create a direct, unique and identifiable connection to Barrie's
historic downtown through the use of a trolley or special bus
that supports their historic relationship and amplifies each's
cultural and economic potential.

Allandale Village Council Pres Low Res

Allandale Village Council Pres Low Res

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