Downtown & Old East Village Community Improvement Plans

A Community Improvement Plan (CIP) is a tool prescribed by Section 28 of the Planning Act intended to re-plan, redesign, redevelop, and rehabilitate a designated area because of age, dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement, unsuitability of buildings or for any other environmental, social or community economic development reasons.

A Community Improvement Plan will help:

• Focus public attention on local priorities and municipal initiatives;
• Target areas in transition or in need of repair, rehabilitation and redevelopment;
• Facilitate and encourage community change in a coordinated manner and
• Stimulate private sector investment through municipal incentive-based programs.

Civic Administration recently undertook an extensive CIP service review and from that recommended changes to existing financial incentive programs, introduced financial incentive programs to new or expanded areas, and requested the CIPs be amended to include performance measures and indicators of success.

It is because of the City’s ability to provide incentive-based programs (grants and loans) that community improvement is often used as a tool to encourage and support community and economic redevelopment. In other words, the City may provide financial incentives to encourage the private sector to invest in a way that supports the City’s policy goals and objectives – such as, improving buildings, building residential dwelling units to increase population, investing in an area in need of improvement, or contributing to the economic development of an area.

This project focuses on the introduction of performance measures and indicators of success for the Downtown and the Old East Village community improvement plans.