Downtown Kingston businesses, shoppers and diners can expect more elbow room as the city plans to relaunch the outdoor Love Kingston Marketplace initiative during the second summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, but with a few important changes.
The initiative, first launched last summer following the initial lockdown phase, aims to block off selected streets and sidewalks in the downtown core to promote shopping, sidewalk patios, Indigenous programming, art space, live music and other family-themed attractions.
“It’s kind of like a new and improved version where I think we learned from last year about what worked well and adjusted things that maybe didn’t work as well,” says Mayor Bryan Paterson.
Council is expected to vote on the revised shopping hub initiative at its Feb. 16 meeting.
The city hopes to launch the Love Kingston Marketplace in April or May as a way to promote downtown businesses – struggling to recover from the recent lockdowns of restaurants and retail stores and the cancellation of festivals – and provide more space for physical distancing until Oct. 31.
City staff say the Love Kingston Marketplace concept of creating more space on streets and sidewalks will:
- Improve physical distancing downtown for pedestrian movement, seating and dining
- Allow businesses to expand operations outdoors
- Support opportunities for businesses to generate revenue
- Foster new and creative animations to improve the downtown experience and ambience
Certain on-street parking spaces will be closed to drivers and converted into temporary outdoor patio space for adjacent restaurants, while some streets themselves will be temporarily closed to traffic at certain times during the summer to create more room for merchandise, shoppers and attractions.
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The opening of more patio spaces proved popular last year and patio owners were not charged municipal fees to rent space on public sidewalks.
“The city provided a total of 1,942 square metres (20,710 square feet) of expanded patio space in 2020 by repurposing approximately 100 on-street parking spaces,” according to a staff report.
The city lost about $65,000 in patio fees and $191,000 in parking revenue during the extended closures, and the revenue losses are expected to continue this year.
The marketplace that ran in the summer and fall of 2020 was not without challenges.
The expanded shopping hub concept was barely a week old when merchants and residents complained that closed street lanes inhibited traffic movement and business deliveries, resulting in the city removing the barricades that blocked one lane of Princess Street (Division to Ontario Street) and Brock Street (Ontario to King streets).
The city doesn’t plan to repeat that mistake this year.
“No lane closures are being proposed as part of LKM 2021 based on the feedback and learned lessons from those lane closures that were attempted on Princess Street and Brock Street in 2020.”
However, the city intends to allow Downtown Kingston to apply for temporary street closures on selected dates:
- Fully close Market Street (Ontario to King streets) to make room for additional seating, tables and pedestrian movement from April 1 to Dec. 31
- Close Sydenham Street (Princess to Queen) on Saturdays from early June to September
- Close Ontario Street (Johnson to Clarence) for four summer weekends (June 18, 19 and 20, July 2, 3, 4, 30, 31 and Aug 1, and Sept. 3, 4 and 5)
- Close Princess Street (Division to Ontario streets) over four Saturdays (June 19, July 10, July 31 and Sept. 18) with through traffic permitted at Barrie, Bagot and Ontario streets
In addition, the city has already converted 25 downtown paid on-street spaces into 10-minute commercial loading zones, and more can be added if the need arises, according to the staff report.
A followup survey of downtown merchants suggested mixed reviews about the size, appearance and deployment of concrete barriers to safely separate outdoor dining space from traffic.
Some feedback indicated the concrete barriers reminded them of a construction zone while others would like to see them beautified.
“One of the things you’re going to see is fewer concrete barriers and those barriers are going to be smaller,” Paterson adds.
City staff say the on-road safety barriers that will be installed this year are half the height, or 18 inches, of those used the previous season and will incorporate concrete planters.
“The shorter concrete barriers also have a smaller base and will increase the space available in the footprint of the patio area. The planters will be filled with seasonally appropriate plants, providing some greenery and softening the feel of the patio spaces.”
Overall, a survey found many merchants support efforts to expand outdoor dining options during the warmer months.
“Many commented that the additional patio spaces made downtown more vibrant and, in some cases, contributed to business survival during the 2020 year.”
This year, officials say they have partnered with Tourism Kingston and Downtown Kingston to work on details such as types of entertainment that will be offered while undertaking careful planning of temporary road closures.
It’s unknown how much revenue the city will lose again this year by closing paid parking spaces and waiving patio license fees.
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