Collingwood's Town Council approves new official plan

On Monday, Collingwood’s town council amended their official plan that requires ground floor space in the historic downtown area to be retail only.

“Some of the retailers I spoke to talk about the fact that when you don’t have consistent retail down a street, sometimes the shoppers, and we do have a lot of tourists as well, they can’t see that it’s worth walking an extra block,” said Yvonne Hamlin, Collingwood mayor.

While stakeholders said they see the value in businesses like law and accounting offices, they prefer them to be on side streets or other levels.

They’ve also seen the difference firsthand in a real estate office that replaced a local restaurant.

“It’s a great investment that this company has made in our downtown, and they’ve worked very well in updating the property and making that investment, but that use is certainly missed by the community as well as the business owners,” said Susan Nicholson with the Collingwood BIA.

Next year, Collingwood will engage in a downtown visioning study. Mayor Hamlin said if the results reveal this is the wrong decision, they will gladly revisit it.

The BIA said they also realize that Collingwood’s heritage buildings present accessibility issues for offices not on the ground floor.

“That’s something from a provincial perspective that we hope there will be support across the province for historic downtowns like ours to provide funding for commercial property owners to make their second and third floors accessible,” said Nicholson.

In order for the amendment to the town’s official plan to move forward, it needs to be approved by the County of Simcoe. A process Mayor Hamlin hopes can be done in the next six months.