Commercial Street and the surrounding area in downtown Nanaimo, BC, are the business, shopping, transportation, tourism, and event hubs of the city. The ensure the downtown remains this heart of the community, as part of the larger Nanaimo ReImagined project, the City wished to develop a guiding design concept for the area. Mobycon, with partners Toole Design Group, developed a plan for Commercial Street with design concepts that would create a renewed sense of place and a human-scale streetscape. The team led a series of public engagement activities, ensuring residents and stakeholders were heard and that their vision was reflected in the designs. This was incorporated using storytelling to create a final report that reflected the history, culture, and spirit of Nanaimo’s diverse community. In ReImagine Nanaimo – the City’s Official Community Plan – a set of nine principles were identified based on community feedback from the Discovery Week engagement sessions and were presented in a subsequent online survey. These were used throughout the remaining phases of the project to help participants identify design elements that were integral for a successful design before being finalized and presented to and adopted by Council.
