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Downtown as a Place of Learning

In 2020, the city’s urban core is a leading learning community.

INDEX

Introduction

This is a report by the Downtown as a Place of Learning Working Group of the Downtown 2020 Conference Series. The Successful Downtown , in November 2003, and Making The Future Happen , in March 2004, brought together urban planning experts from the region and across North America. They shared their ideas—and successes—with residents, business owners, community groups and social services organizations representing people of diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds, who share in common a concern for the future of downtown Victoria.

Participants in the working group include:

  • Bill Wellburn
  • Richard Skinner
  • Denise Savoie
  • Donald Roughley
  • Paul McGeachie
  • Mohan Jawl
  • Martin Segger
  • Ron Faris
  • Susan Henderson
  • Nicole Burgess

Objective

By 2020 Victoria will be known as a leading learning community. The city enhances its economic, environmental and social conditions on a sustainable and inclusive basis, using lifelong learning as an organizing principle and cultural goal that mobilizes the human, social, built capital and other educational resources within its civic, economic, education, and voluntary/community sectors.

Role of the Urban Core

1. Downtown will support a social and human capital infrastructure that will use a current community profile/map of the Place of Learning as the benchmark for progress toward 2020 lifelong learning objectives such as:

  • Quality early learning/childcare for infants of Downtown employees and residents
  • An Investors in People program with individual learning plans for at least 50% of workers in Downtown enterprises.
  • Elder college participation of Downtown seniors will exceed 50%.
  • Cross-sector initiatives related to the arts and learning will increase by 50%.
  • A doubling of educational tourism: visitation, temporary and long to medium term.

2. Downtown Victoria will be the dynamic service core of this arts and learning community. It will provide a supporting infrastructure consisting of:

  • A comprehensive higher education campus or precinct providing facilities for career education, including programs of the University of Victoria, Camosun College, Royal Roads University, the Justice Institute, along with institutions such as the Canadian College of Performing Arts and the Victoria College of Art.
  • A range of harbour oriented cultural facilities including a BC Maritime History Centre, Parks Canada interpretation facility, an Ocean Observatory and Aquarium for the Neptune Project, a Children’s Museum, a First Nations Cultural Centre and a Festival site, linked by a water oriented linear heritage and natural history trail.
  • A concentration of cultural and educational facilities oriented to major public spaces including a new Central Library with an open learning commons to support smaller specialist, arts, language and career education agencies, a downtown grade school, an expanded Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives, a new centre for performing arts, at least three small performance spaces, an Art Gallery of Greater Victoria downtown pavilion, a First Nations cultural site, an expanded Victoria Conference Centre and City Heritage Centre.
  • A variety of non-profit and market housing, new purpose-built and in converted heritage buildings, including live/work to accommodate artists, teachers and students.

3. Institutional support for the creative and learning industries of Downtown will be provided by:

  • A Victoria Arts and Learning Trust that will bring together governmental, economic, media, corporate, educational, voluntary/community and cultural sectors to collaboratively promote, organize and also fund creative and learning initiatives.
  • A comprehensive but focused tourism marketing and promotions strategy to position Victoria as a visitor destination for artistic and educational/learning community experiences.
  • A civic based program of creative bylaw and zoning instruments, land assembly, facility creation and improvements, direct grant and other aids to support and sustain the formal and non-formal learning sector base for a learning city.
  • A civic place management strategy—i.e whole of government strategy—to focus resources of the City, school district, police, health and community development etc. towards a collaborative 2020 process with Downtown stakeholders.

How will this be done and who will do it?

Short and Medium Term

  • The DVCA should encourage and support the City of Victoria and Library Board in finalizing plans for the new Central Library as a service facility and anchor to a downtown learning precinct.
  • The DVCA should co-operate with the City in hosting stakeholder forums to investigate the feasibility, needs and requirements for a higher education precinct or campus downtown within the context of a comprehensive lifelong learning strategy.
  • The DVCA should co-operate with the City, Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Victoria to articulate options, identify incentives, to grow the downtown education and training business/service sector.
  • The DVCA should encourage and monitor the Downtown museums and stakeholders roundtable discussions hosted by the Maritime Museum with respect to the planning and funding of a harbour oriented cluster of cultural heritage agencies.

Long Term

  • The DVCA should assemble a consortium of downtown land holders, developers and entrepreneurs who would undertake to collaborate with the City and partner with appropriate private and public learning institutions in order to create the infrastructure for a downtown educational precinct.
  • The DVCA should take a leadership role in creating a Victoria Arts & Learning Trust, or identifying an existing agency that could act as one. The role of the Trust would be to facilitate and co-ordinate the world-wide promotion of Downtown Victoria as the service core of a learning city. The Trust would also provide a collaborative focus for efforts in sustaining and growing both the profit and non-profit sectors which comprise this creative core.

References

Excerpts from the 2004 City of Victoria Corporate Strategic Plan: (pdf)

GOAL ONE: STRENGTHEN THE ECONOMIC VITALITY OF DOWNTOWN

Objective 1: Pursue Arts, Culture, and Tourism Opportunities:

Strategies:

4. Plan and develop a new Central Library

and…

Object 3: Promote Downtown as a Place of Learning:

Strategies:

1. Work with regional education institutions to develop a downtown campus

2. Define options/incentives to retain and expand down town school business

3. Facilitate a partnership network that promotes lifelong learning in the community,

innovative economic and social activities and social cohesion.

Actions:

1. Convene a strategy workshop to examine needs, incentives and barriers to a

downtown campus (Planning, 1st quarter, 2004)

2. Convene a strategy workshop to examine needs, incentives and barriers for downtown

schools (Planning, 1st quarter, 2004)

 

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