Not giving up on Quinpool streetscape plan

By Lindsay Jones - The Weekly News
Quinpool Road's merchant association is gathering ammo to try and salvage its plan to make over the busy commercial street.
The federal government recently overlooked the Quinpool Main Street Association's comprehensive plan to upgrade the streetscape.
"It's extremely disappointing," said Karla Nicholson, general manager of the Quinpool Road Main Street District Association. "I haven't 100 per cent given up that we're never going to get it."
The project would've made the strip of shops and services greener and more pedestrian-friendly. Resurfacing the road, burying power lines, installing LED street lights, improving the sidewalks and planting more trees were some of the highlights of the project.
Council had already approved
$2 million for the upgrades, but it's now up in the air whether that money will remain earmarked for the
$10 million project.
"We were shovel ready and in a perfect place to get that money, but we did not, so in the meantime, we've been talking with councillors and HRM staff," Nicholson said. "It's a lot of money to come up with, so we've been trying to figure out how we can lobby other levels of government."
The group has partnered with a group of grad students from Dalhousie University's management department to look into exactly how much of the commercial tax base is reinvested in the area.
"We pay very high taxes and we seem to get very little in return in terms of reinvestment into the downtown," Nicholson said. "We want to be armed with ammunition to go to other levels of government to say, 'Why can't you put money into our downtowns?' That's the economic driver of our community. That is where the tourists want to be … How often do you see a tourist in a business park? Things just seem to be continually expanding and expanding on the outer fringes, which goes against everything green that people are saying they're trying to promote, and they're not putting any monies back into the downtown."
In the meantime, the Main Street Association hopes the city will hold on to the $2 million for the project while it comes up with a strategy to get the other $8 million it needs to go forward. Nicholson said the hope is for regional council to pony up more cash and provincial and federal governments match it.
"The longer it gets put off, the more it costs," she said. "And then how can you go before the study, all the work and consultation you got is out of date?"
Councillors and local business district groups, including Quinpool's, met recently with HRM senior staff to discuss the importance of the areas. Quinpool-Connaught Coun. Jennifer Watts said staff is looking at options to see if there is any flexibility to free up federal stimulus money to go toward the project.
"Streetscaping is not a frill," she said. "It is really important to economic and community development."
Watts said the analysis from the students may or may not be helpful since there are arguments for streetscaping in rural parts of HRM, too. But when it comes to the capital district, she said there is a certain urgency because it's the economic driver that impacts all of HRM.
ljones@hfxnews.ca