Canada/Traders delighted with plan to revitalize downtown Chicoutimi

Rue Racine merchants are delighted with the Plan particulier d'urbanisme (PPU) unveiled Tuesday by the City of Saguenay to revitalize downtown Chicoutimi.

You can see that they really want to revitalize it, bring it back much better. I'm very happy and very confident that it's going to happen," said David Janelle, chef and owner of La Cuisine restaurant since 2017.

We're happy not to feel let down by the city this time," added the entrepreneur, who was joined in his business.

It's the same story at the Twist boutique, located a little further along the commercial artery. It's about time! exclaims owner Guylaine Vézina, who points out that the plan is very, very, very good news.

The day before, Saguenay mayor Julie Dufour revealed a series of 80 actions to make downtown Chicoutimi more attractive. In particular, her team wants to encourage the construction of new housing, the emergence of local shops and safe pedestrian traffic, while also focusing on densification, sustainable mobility and green spaces.

She also confirmed that the area is Saguenay's true downtown. For several years, city councillors have been arguing over which downtown should represent the economic heart of Saguenay.

Guylaine Vézina is especially pleased with this recognition. We're all united here in saying that this is going to be Chicoutimi, and that's where we're investing," she says.

For his part, David Delisle, co-owner of Laflamme et compagnie, is delighted. It's about time this happened," he says.

Delisle, who owns two shops on Rue Racine, dreams of downtown becoming a lively place to live and play. If you want to go out, go shopping, walk down a street, have a coffee, have a drink at the end of the day, it's not complicated, it's on Racine. In Saguenay, that's where it's at," he wants people to think.

Mireille Jean satisfied

Sector councillor Mireille Jean conducted several consultations with citizens and businesses to find out their vision of the downtown area. According to her, the 72 pages of the PPU are largely the fruit of her labors.

In fact, there's a lot of my work in there, as the mayor pointed out yesterday at the municipal council meeting, and I'd like to thank her," she says.

She would have started the process to get Saguenay into third gear. I didn't do it to show the mayor anything. I did it, first and foremost, because the downtown area was important. I didn't see the action that was going on within the municipal apparatus.

At the time, the actions I had in mind I wanted to share with the population. That's what the workshops were all about. One of my objectives was to make this a topical issue," she says.

Mireille Jean believes that mission accomplished: downtown revitalization is now one of Saguenay's priorities, even if concrete investments are still awaited.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/