How do residents of Peterborough’s Downtown Jackson Creek neighbourhood relate to the public spaces, streets, and sidewalks in their community? What are the unique assets of the neighbourhood, and what are some opportunities to enhance public spaces?
These are just some of the questions answered in the latest publication developed by our co-design team in collaboration with our partner GreenUP, the Portrait of the Downtown Jackson Creek Neighbourhood. GreenUP and TCAT have been working in the neighbourhood since June 2018 through a project known locally as NeighbourPLAN. We’ve used a diverse range of co-design tools to engage over 400 residents in sharing their experiences, insights, and knowledge of the neighbourhood.
Combining this resident input with data from secondary sources—like the Canadian Census and the transportation, traffic, land use, and zoning data from the City of Peterborough—we’ve created a portrait of a dense and lively neighbourhood. The portrait discusses the unique character of the community, influenced by the mixed land use, architecture, and history of the area. It also highlights the many natural assets in the community, including the Trans Canada Trail and Jackson Creek, which run through the heart of the neighbourhood. We learned that the neighbourhood is home to many seniors and young adults, and is a lower income community with a high number of people experiencing poverty. It is also an active neighbourhood—many people get around by walking, biking, and transit, although there are some areas in the community that lack safe infrastructure for active travel.
This portrait document represents the culmination of the first phase of our co-design approach, but our work is really just heating up in Downtown Jackson Creek. This document will serve as a foundation for our work going forward. On April 27, TCAT and GreenUP are hosting a public launch event for the Portrait document, where we’ll engage residents in the next steps in the co-design process. From there, we’ll work with our project resident committee to determine 4-6 key areas of focus for design enhancements in the neighbourhood. In June, we will invite professionals from across the built environment and public health disciplines to attend a co-design workshop, where they will work alongside residents to propose design ideas for the neighbourhood.
In addition to Downtown Jackson Creek, GreenUP and TCAT are supporting co-design processes in two other Peterborough neighbourhoods: Jackson Park-Brookdale and Talwood. Jackson Park-Brookdale is a residential community in the north end of the city, bounded by Jackson Park (Peterborough’s largest public greenspace) to the west, and the Chemong Road commercial corridor to the east. We are nearing the completion of our final project phase in this neighbourhood, and will be publishing a Vision for the Jackson Park Brookdale Neighbourhood in the coming weeks. Our work is just getting started in the Talwood neighbourhood, which is a dense tower residential community in the south end. We’re eager to begin to build connections with residents in that neighbourhood and start to build the portrait of the Talwood Community!
Although the Portrait of the Downtown Jackson Creek Neighbourhood is best viewed in print, an adapted PDF format is available here.