Connect Downtown: Planning a Vibrant Town Centre

Since October 2023, we have been crafting an Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) to serve as a roadmap to guide the evolution of downtown Canmore as a community-centric space to the year 2050. Following extensive public engagement, we have drafted the ARP, and we have launched a final public input phase before bringing the draft plan to Council in the spring.

In the earlier phases of engagement, public input helped us understand what matters to you downtown, what you hope for its future, and what you thought about ways to get there. Now, we want to know what you think about the draft plan.

Take the last Connect Downtown survey by March 2 for a chance to win a $100 gift card to a downtown business of your choice, tune into our webinar on Feb. 24 at noon, or visit our pop-up engagement at The Warm Up on Feb. 27.

You can explore the full draft of the Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) and our "What We Heard" reports that summarize the public input from earlier phasess on the right hand toolbar.

On the tail of our extensive first phase of engagement where we sought broad-based input about our community’s priorities for this plan, the Options phase of engagement served as a pulse check to determine if we were on the right track prior to developing a draft plan.

In the spirit of transparency, we presented all potential strategies and concepts under consideration. Information about all the proposed strategies was available on our MyCanmore website, integrated into our pop-engagement at Elevation Place, and acted as the backbone of our online survey.

Typically, we do not conduct engagement in the summer months; however, we wanted to provide as many engagement touchstones as possible throughout the planning process and prior to drafting the plan. And despite the summer timeline, we exceeded our past records for engagement turnout.

We received over 2,400 comments from a diverse representation of individuals, community organizations, industry associations and businesses—including 1,759 responses to our online survey.

Overall, the feedback confirms that the project is moving in the right direction. However, the planning team will need to carefully balance community concerns with the broader objectives of the plan, particularly regarding increases in building heights and density.

Read the full report to learn more about what we heard from the community.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Options phase of the project. We received spirited input from over 2,000 people through an online survey, a three-week pop-up at Elevation Place, meetings with residents, and a stakeholder workshop.

We are currently reviewing feedback received during the process and will release a comprehensive What We Heard Report this fall as we prepare a draft plan that we will present back to the community for input in early 2025. It is important to note that the ideas presented were preliminary concepts and may look different in the final Area Redevelopment Plan.

Thank you to believing in the future of our community!

On May 21, 2024, we presented the final Vision Document with the supporting What We Heard Report to Council.

Connect Downtown publicly launched in October 2023 and is anticipated to be completed by Spring 2025.The first public-facing phase of work was the “Visioning” phase, which involved broad community engagement and research to understand what people value downtown and what opportunities there are for improvement. In total, more than 1,600 direct interactions with the community and stakeholders helped improve our understanding of what is working downtown today, what people want to see changed, and what is possible in the future.

The results from this phase of work supported the creation of a community vision for the future of downtown, which includes a vision statement, six core values, and ten big ideas. Together, these elements will be used to inform the development of draft policy in the “Options” phase of work that will happen next.

This report articulates this community vision along with a detailed summary of what we heard through engagement.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Visioning phase of the project. Over 3000 people participated in this phase of the project, including online tools, classroom workshops, and a downtown-wide music festival. Your contributions are essential in shaping the future of our community.

We are currently reviewing feedback received during the process and will release a comprehensive What We Heard Report alongside a Visioning Document later this spring.

Follow this page as we prepare for the next engagement phase of the project this summer where we will seek your input on potential policy options for downtown.

We're teaming up with the Canmore Folk Music Festival to present The Warm Up: a micro music festival on the evening of Friday, Feb. 9 to kick off our public engagement for Connect Downtown.

Shake the frost and cozy into an evening of local music in intimate venues at The Warm Up, presented by the Canmore Folk Music Festival and the Town of Canmore as part of the Connect Downtown project to imagine the future of our town centre.

One night. 11 artists. Four venues—all within a snowball’s throw in downtown Canmore.

Event Schedule:

• 6- 9:30 p.m. The Warm Up Hub at the Civic Centre Plaza
• 7-10 p.m. Concerts at four downtown venues: Stonewaters, Communitea, Carter-Ryan Gallery, and the ArtsPlace
• 9:30-10:30 p.m. Stonewaters Après Party

Line Up:

• Amelie Patterson, Cave Arcade, Mike Tod, and more!
  
  

Between musical sets at iconic local venues to catch all your favourite local artists, grab cocoa at the Warm Up Hub in the Civic Centre Plaza. While you’re there, share your vision for the future of downtown at our Connect Downtown engagement for a chance to win a $100 giftcard to a downtown business of your choice.

The Warm Up is free, but space is as limited as fresh tracks on a powder day. Arrive early to lock down that first-chair feeling! If a concert is full, wander to the next venue like you would festival stages since performances are happening throughout the night at each location.

Then don’t miss the Après Party at Stonewaters from 9:30-10:30 p.m. to close out the night.

Learn more about Connect Downtown at mycanmore.ca/connectdowntown
For schedule and full event details, visit: canmorefolkfestival.com/the-warm-up