Blue Mountain

Conference 2017

Revitalizing Wasaga Beach: Bringing Back the Social, Cultural & Economic Heart

October 04, 2017

1:15pm - 2:15pm

Wasaga Beach is a historic seasonal community with suburban car-dominated values, which has no people-oriented downtown. This session will focus on Wasaga Beach’s plans to revitalize its once-thriving tourist economy by recreating a downtown through placemaking design. Presenters will share strategies for consensus building and change management, as well as tools to promote development and revitalization. Also, they will discuss a case study illustrating how short-term public space activation can promote changes in planning approaches and help to garner public support.

Learning Objectives:

Gaining knowledge about methods and best practices for building consensus through public engagement and communication strategies, and how consensus building can influence change management in the planning process.
Gaining knowledge about tools to manage change, implement policy and promote development.
Understanding how short-term activation of public spaces can promote change and help the community build resilience and support for new planning approaches.