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REAL ESTATE AND PLANNING

2020 Belleville Contaminated Lands Community Improvement Plan

Community Improvement Plans (CIPs) are most successful where their implementation is carefully planned and executed. Sierra has undertaken almost two dozen community improvement plans in Ontario since the mid 2000s, providing clients with clarity as to how to market and resource these plans as well as fund them.

Sierra Planning and Management is updating the City of Belleville’s CIP designed to help remediate contaminated lands and their subsequent development. We first completed the CIP in 2007 and updated the plan in 2011. As the City’s real estate market has expanded and urban redevelopment is contemplated on a range of infill sites and the waterfront, this plan has taken on renewed importance. Ultimately incentive programs in Belleville will combine brownfield, affordable housing and downtown support into a single comprehensive community improvement plan.

Downtown Guelph Community Improvement Plan (CIP)

The success of the City’s Downtown CIP led to a maxing-out of available Tax Increment Grant funding and a need to update the Plan after 5 years of operation.

Sierra was commissioned to update the plan and establish the focus for the next 5 years based on new directions.

The success of residential development and the significance of funding to date meant that the focus will now shift toward mixed use and commercial office development as priority investments for Downtown.

2020 Revelstoke Mountain Mixed-Use Neighbourhood Plan

As a rare example of a temperate inland rainforest, Revelstoke and the site are framed by the Columbia River and the surrounding high peaks.

Retained by B+H Architects as part of a multi-disciplinary team to develop a master plan for a new mixed use neighbourhood close to Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Sierra helped the design team with an understanding of the range of market potential associated with the lands. Working collaboratively, the team emphasized the intrinsic potential associated with the site based on a philosophy of resilient design and minimalist intrusion into the landscape.

Our analysis provided highly detailed market advice, absorption analysis by land use type, appropriate form of ownership, and return on investment for a range of development scenarios.

2018 Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services Asset Planning

Working as part of a team led by Parkin Architects, we provided real estate planning advice for the Government of Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and Infrastructure Ontario (IO). The range of youth justice facilities operated by the Province were subject to future asset management planning involving a range of outcomes for various buildings across the province – decommissioning, expansion, renovation, retention, as-is. Sierra provided the necessary assessment of financial impacts associated with different strategies while other members of the team assessed the implications for service capacity and future demand projections for beds by region. The resulting analysis and selection of preferred options for each region was part of a broader strategy for province-wide capital planning.