Kingston’s downtown core will look a little different next week, and the changes may be welcome to pedestrians and patio owners alike.
The city’s Love Kingston Marketplace initiative, which will close certain lanes or full roads in the downtown area, is set to start taking shape by Wednesday.
This initiative is different than the recent one passed by city council called Quiet Streets, which aims to do much of the same thing, but will be implemented by Kingston Coalition for Active Transportation, and has yet to start.
Work on the closures will continue Thursday evening, with the lane and road closures to be unveiled by Friday.
The closures will go as follows:
- Princess Street: Reduced to a single vehicle lane from Ontario to Division streets with cross streets open. On-street parking will be unavailable, except for new designated pickup and delivery spaces on each block.
- Brock Street: Reduced to a single vehicle lane from Ontario to Wellington streets with cross streets open. On-street parking will be unavailable, except for new designated pickup and delivery spaces.
- Clarence Street: Current space for on-street parking will be repurposed to accommodate a lane shift.
- Market Street: The entire road will be closed to vehicles. On-street parking will be unavailable.
- Cross streets: Some on-street parking spaces on cross streets will be repurposed to create additional space for businesses as well as additional short-term pickup and delivery areas.
The initiative is meant to help revitalize the downtown core after extended business closures during the novel coronavirus pandemic. It has been a collaboartive effort between the city, community partners and individual businesses.
The Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) conducted two surveys in May to assess the need of closing down certain streets, according to a city spokesperson.
Two more surveys are planned from now until the fall, the city said.
The city says it will also be testing lane and road closures on Ontario Street between Johnson and Clarence streets in the coming weeks.
For businesses wanting to extend their space into the newly closed lanes, the city is currently accepting permit applications from restaurants wanting to extend their patio areas.
Before the closures take place, there will be new pickup and delivery areas set up next week, the city said, with signage installed to indicate those new spaces.
“Other lay-by spaces will become available to businesses for outdoor expansion during the week of June 29,” the city said in a news release.
Waste collection will follow the same schedules. Once lane closures are in place, the city will release updates about the placement of waste.
Accessible parking spaces will be affected, but the city says they will be moved and clearly marked on this updated parking map.
The lane closures for the Love Kingston Marketplace initiative are meant to stay in place until the fall.
Comments