DOWNTOWN RICHMOND HILL “is the historic, symbolic, cultural, and civic heart of Richmond Hill,” according to a new study.
Richmond Hill council approved the “Downtown Design and Land Use Strategy Final Report,” one of two “area studies” being undertaken as part of the development of Richmond Hill’s new official plan on June 23. Staff have also been directed to gather public opionion on whether support exists for the proposed relocation of Town Hall to a city- owned site at Yonge Street and Major Mackenzie Drive following a council meeting in May. The results of this consultation will be reported in November.
This news is the latest in a number of efforts to revitalize downtown Richmond Hill, which includes the construction of the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.
The studies were completed in three phases over a nine-month period, in collaboration with the community and centred on a downtown summit and two downtown forums.
The area covered by the study runs along Yonge Street, between Harding Boulevard and Levendale Road, and divides the area into three districts: the uptown district, the village district and the civic centre district.
“I think it’s wonderful that the town is thinking of coming back to the town,” said Penny Parmenter, of the Society for the Community of Old Richmond Hill regarding the idea of the relocation of Town Hall and other revitalization efforts. Since founding the group roughly 20 years ago, Parmenter has worked on core revitalization issues.
“The core of any city is the heritage, the beginning of that city, wherever it began,” she said. “If you went down to Chicago as a tourist, you wouldn’t go to suburbia. You would go to the core, to see where it all started.”
Coun. Lynn Foster agreed that the goal of revitalization efforts are about reconnecting people and the downtown.
“At the end of the day, it brings back the heart of our community,” Foster said. “That’s our heartbeat. That’s where all the life forces flow out of, and that’s where people know the action is.”
There is more to revitalization efforts than buildings and beautification, according to one local leader.
“I think that all this work towards a better Richmond Hill is wonderful, but we mustn’t forget the people that are already here,” said Angel Freedman, president of the Westbrook Residents’ Association. For 14 years, the association has worked to fostercommunity belonging, for the 2,000 homes, through family, social, educational and sporting events. In addition to bringing people back to the downtown core, Freedman says that emphasis for social services must also be present.
“When you take care of your community, you take care of your people,” she said.
For Foster, the movement is about a restoration to the way things used to be.
“What I want to see is for it to become the most desirable part of our whole community,” she said. “And believe it or not, that’s what it was 40, 50 years ago. And I think we can claim it back, and that’s what I’d ideally like to see happen.”