Black Diamond Town officials are seeking public input to determine if the historic boomtown look that dominates the downtown will be expanded.
A public hearing will be held next week to get feedback on the possibility of extending the Town’s historic architectural design bylaw to new commercial, industrial and institutional development adjacent to provincial highways.
“We have a charming town, we hear that all the time,” said Black Diamond Mayor Sharlene Brown. “We want to attract new visitors and new businesses that will buy into that charm.”
Black Diamond’s Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) brought the suggestion to the Town last spring. Although a public hearing was scheduled for last June, Brown said it was postponed to get more information before presenting the idea to the public.
“We wanted to put it through MPC first to get clear direction as to how far to go with it,” she said. “If we were going to extend them, how far and what area? Do we want to have historical main street guidelines going through the town so we have architectural controls, especially for gateways and entrances in the community? Did it make sense we do something like extend the historic guidelines to the industrial area behind Rona?”
Several opportunities for new development are in the works in the northeast portion of Black Diamond so Brown said this is a good time to put guidelines in place.
The Town of Black Diamond adopted historic design standards for its downtown businesses in 2004 to revitalize the 1920s and ’30s boomtown look.
Businesses were required to feature large wooden false fronts and stipulations were placed on the style of the structures’ windows, awnings, canopies, signs and landscaping.
Brown said the consistent look makes the community more visually appealing.
“If there’s a building with a boomtown look, beside that a modern building, beside that a 1950s building then beside that a Victorian building, it’s not esthetically pleasing,” she said. “We want our community to flow.”
Brown said traffic impact studies conducted in Black Diamond last year reveal 9,000 vehicles travel through the four-way stop east to south daily, but she said about only 10 per cent stop in town to shop.
“We need to bring people into our community and find out what’s going to make them stay and get out of their cars and shop,” she said.
Rod Ross, the Town’s planning and development officer, supports expanding the town’s historic appearance to retain and enhance the town’s historic boomtown identity.
He said the Town had been applying the guidelines beyond downtown informally for years.
“There’s been a lot of concerns shown in our community about the prospect of new commercial development coming to town and we want to ensure that the decision of the new development fits in with what we’ve got going here already,” he said. “It’s about strengthening our identify and that will enhance the appeal. More people will want to be here.”
Ross said he had the opportunity to speak with the pubic and developers about the idea and in both cases he received a positive response.
“They indicated a willingness to work with us on this,” he said of the developers.
“I haven’t heard form anyone that’s opposed to it. If someone really wants to be here they will work with us.”
The public hearing will take place at the Black Diamond Municipal Office on Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
