Streetscape changes a slow but sure process

By Anna-Grae York

EDMONTON — Community restoration is amping up in parts of west Edmonton with a program that improves the esthetics of run-down businesses as well as streetscape renovations to take place next year.

The Façade and Storefront Improvement Program is a project funded by the city that encourages businesses to renovate and spruce up the exteriors of their properties.

The program provides businesses with matching grants, meaning the business has to match the amount the grant is worth. The grants are usually about $30,000, from the program’s yearly budget of about $900,000.

“Depending on the building, it can go quite a ways,” said Lara Pinchbeck, the planner for the program. “We look at sprucing up the look of the building, the front of it, new materials, sometimes the configuration of where the door is, and the windows.”

The project, which has been in operation for about 10 years, tries to work within business revitalization zones such as Stony Plain Road and 124^th Street.

Revolution Cycle, a bike shop located at 15103 Stony Plain Road, is signed up to do a renovation with the program next year. The rusty railings on the sidewalk will be fixed up, new post signage and lighting will be added, and some stucco work will be done. The building is a decent size, so Pinchbeck says the program will do as much as it can with the budget.

“We primarily work in parts of the street that are pedestrian-focused because we’re trying to make really active, animated, fun, diverse, interesting walking streets,” said Pinchbeck. “Whyte Avenue is a good example of the kind of street we’d like to work towards.

The results of the project can be seen in areas such as Alberta Avenue, which is where Pinchbeck estimates about a third of all its projects have taken place.

“Twelve, 15 years ago the area was in really rough shape, it was not a safe area,” she said. “People did not want to visit that area at all, let alone do any kind of shopping or have a business there.

“And now, we’re seeing that there’s a big influx of people from the rest of the city to come to that place and see that it’s fun and there’s different things that can happen. And what we’re seeing is a lot of businesses that might have been struggling for a long time are now flourishing.”

Restoration in the city will go even further next year, as the city has plans to renovate the entire streetscape of particular areas.

Stony Plain Road is one of those target areas. Configuration of the sidewalk, street furniture such as lamps, garbage cans and benches, and overall appearance of the streetscape will be taken in to consideration. Pinchbeck would like to focus the project on the part of Stony Plain Road between about 151^st and 156^th streets at the same time as the city will be doing these renovations.

Diane Kereluk, executive director of the Stony Plain Road and Area Business Association, is excited about the impacts the project is making in the area.

“It’s working really well,” she said. “It’s a positive program that we hope more and more people will take advantage of.”

Kereluk says that West End Exchange, a Stony Plain Road pawn shop, is doing well since it took advantage of the program, and she hopes the same will happen for the Revolution Cycle building. West End Exchange had an exterior makeover that included new signage and stonework to give it a more modern, inviting look.

“I think it’s a psychological thing,” said Pinchbeck. “I think that we’re all, as humans, attracted to a little bit of change.”

The Façade and Storefront Improvement Program has a sister program called the Development Incentive program. It takes under-used commercial buildings as well as empty lots and develops them, sometimes adding residential units on the upper levels to support the businesses below. Pinchbeck has plans to give some landowners a tour down the strip between 151^st and 156^th streets to see if it is a program they’d like to take advantage of.