The City of Dauphin has submitted a proposal to the province to have highways 5A and 10A rerouted, in an effort to revitalize downtown and make it more pedestrian friendly.
"The idea is just to create a more walkable, pedestrian friendly area. We are a growing community and tourism is becoming a more important asset to us, and this really kind of fits with that thought process where we want to have downtown active and alive, we want people to come and visit...we want local people to be able to enjoy our downtown, and widening the sidewalks and creating a more appealing area fits with that whole philosophy," said Martijn van Luijn, Economic Development Officer for the City of Dauphin.
van Lujin said the plan to revitalize Dauphin's downtown isn't new. The plan came from their ecomonic deveopment committee 2 years ago, and they've already made good steps towards making it a safer and more walkable area.
"In economic development we kind of follow the principle of community economic development, which means community first. It's about creating liveable, safe places, and downtown revitalization really fits in that...we also see some new businesses in [downtown], we have some really home grown businesses. We have a butcher shop and a bakery, and a pet store, and a micro brewery, and a soon to open maker space, so that's when the name Craft District got coined," said van Lujin.
Economic Development's major concern with pedestrian safety in the area is the highways. Though most large local traffic avoids the area, like transport truck drivers who are familiar with the area, there is still the potential for people unfamiliar with the area to increase heavy traffic.
"We want to make it a pedestrian friendly area, and that means that we want to try to avoid as much heavy traffic as possible...it's a total picture, and we're trying to encourage heavy traffic to take a different route, and to get the local traffic that still chooses to drive there to slow down a bit," said van Lujin.
Though the province isn't guaranteed to approve the city's request, it looks bright. van Lujin said there wasn't much opposition from anyone on the provincial side.
"We talked to the minister and people in the department, and it doesn't seem like there's any opposition to it, so we're just going through the process," said van Lujin.
Businesses in the area to be revitalized (pictured above, courtesy Dauphin Economic Development) include the Watson Art Centre, Obsolete Brewing Company, and Western Bakery Dauphin.
