Kamloops City council has seen a draft version of a new downtown plan.

City councillors were able to give their feedback on the document, when it was presented at a Committee of the Whole meeting this afternoon, October 29.

Community Planning Supervisor Jason Locke says the document – that’s been in the works since last year – aims to envision what the downtown could look like over a 20-year time frame.

“It provides land use planning and direction for land management at the neighbourhood level. The reason why it’s important is because we need a plan in place to help us make decisions on development that will be happening in the future.”

He says the city will use that document, when it is passed, to make future development decisions on future development in the downtown core.

“The plan provides the vision and the key principals of what we would like to see for a successful downtown, and of course, some of the implementation items which we call sort of these catalyst project or the key development sites, these are potential projects that could occur that could help achieve that vision for the downtown.”

And Locke says those key development sites include the new Performing Arts Centre, and a permanent pedestrian plaza on Fourth Avenue among others.

“There’s also taming Seymour Street, whether it remains one way or goes to two way. And then you have the key redevelopment sites, so this is the Columbia Precinct, which is a provincially owned site, the 400 block of Nicola Street, and then the former Value Village and parking lots and then that’s the same with Kamloops Square as well,” he said.

Locke says residents will be able to have another say on this draft plan next month, however those dates to be determined.

He says based on the feedback they get, there will be changes made to the draft plan, and it will be presented to council for adoption in mid-December, though again, a date is still to be determined.