Downtown Master Plan approved by council

The City of Swift Current is moving forward with their Downtown Master Plan after approval from council Monday night.

The plan has been in the development stages for three years as the City looked for the best ways to economically develop and physically revitalize Swift Current's historic downtown.

Michael Ruus, general manager of planning and growth development with the City of Swift Current, said the past three years have included a lot of public consultations which ultimately helped shape the plan.

"We've been like I said working with the public over the past three years to define what their vision is for the downtown is for the future and come up with a variety of strategies to take advantage of our existing assets and try and build on some of our challenges," he said.

As a result of public's feedback the plan was shaped with five themes; connectivity, programming, marketing, organization, and economic development.

"Ultimately the plan is all about setting the expectation for growth in the downtown, so trying to make the downtown more vibrant and exciting for new investment even more than it is today," he said.

A few establishments have already begun to make the downtown more vibrant and authentic in Ruus' eyes.

"We have a number of really successful examples already," he said. "Whether it be Optical Image, Sputtergotch Toys, W.W. Smith, and the Lyric Theatre that's been investing quite a bit in their building. The professional building is another good example of a property that was able to take advantage of some downtown grants to move forward with some of the building facade."

Part of the Downtown Master Plan provides guidance for property owners that want to participate in authentic improvements to their building.

The approval of the plan and document at council earlier this week sets the policy basis for decision making in the downtown core moving forward.

"We will be working on the implementation of the plan over the next couple of years and moving forward into the future," Ruus said. "It will be a fairly lengthy period for full implementation of the plan, but we're looking forward to taking small steps forward every year."