Pilot project aims to help revitalize downtown Kamloops

Jul 19, 2018 | 9:36 AM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops is launching a downtown pilot project in partnership with the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association (KCBIA) in hopes of bringing Fourth Avenue to life this summer.

The Summer 2018 Plaza Pilot Project will run from July 26 to August 12, and will involve closing Fourth Avenue to vehicle traffic from the alley between Victoria Street and Lansdowne Street, to the alley between Victoria Street and Seymour Street. Victoria Street will remain open to east-west traffic.

The project comes on the heels of input from the community in May, and major landowner feedback received in June.

It will feature a “pedestrianized” environment with lighting, seating areas, planters, street trees, and street games.

The project will run from the start of the Kamloops International Buskers Festival and Downtown Merchants Market, to the Hot Nite in the City August 12.

“The goal is to test this. We’ve heard quite strongly from the public that they want a plaza space downtown,” says Jason Locke, community planning and sustainability manager with the City of Kamloops. “We don’t really have a pedestrian plaza downtown. Especially connected to Victoria Street, which is our main street and functioning as the heart of downtown.”

He says the ultimate goal is to make this temporary space, a permanent one in a year or two.

Locke encourages residents who attend the downtown festivities to fill out a short survey and provide their feedback.