ELORA – When East Mill Street goes through a major reconstruction planned for 2023, those who live and work said they want to see it become something a bit more in line with the rest of Downtown Elora.
The East Mill Street Committee, a subcommittee of the Elora BIA, has some ideas in mind on how to make this happen and is currently working with the township to make the street more inviting to visitors and act as a gateway to downtown for those coming from Fergus.
The proposed changes have both aesthetic and pedestrian safety in mind with ideas including: burying the utility lines, traffic calming measures, sidewalk widening, new lighting, seating areas, mature trees and removing some parking.
“Anything’s better than this,” said Sabine Maarse, owner of Elora Doggy Daycare, when looking at a photo of what the street currently looks like.
She said the nuts and bolts infrastructure work to the road, sidewalk and water main needs to be done but this is likely going to mean East Mill is torn up for most of the construction season next year.
“That in itself is going to have a pretty significant negative impact for a lot of businesses because it’d be more challenging to get there,” Maarse said, acknowledging retail and restaurants in the area will be affected more so than her service business.
“If you were going to go up one night for a nice meal and you were deciding which way to go, would you go down where all the construction is? Probably not.”
Therefore, she said creating an inviting East Mill Street may give businesses the chance to recover from what will likely be a tough year.
John Kears, who co-owns the Karger Gallery building with his wife who owns the business, said even when its not under construction East Mill Street isn’t as appealing to the eye as West Mill and Metcalfe Streets.
He said a Centre Wellington tourism study in 2019 showed the township had almost 500,000 visitors and he wondered how many were turned off from visting businesses on this stretch due to the look of East Mill Street.
“It just doesn’t stand out, it doesn’t add to the mystique of Elora at all, not one bit,” Kears said in an interview on the building’s balcony looking out to East Mill Street.
Kevin Zuber, chef and owner of The Cellar, said he’s concerned about how business will be in 2023 but was looking forward to any changes on East Mill
“I think it's going to bring people down this way, you’re going to want to come down here, it’s going to be more inviting,” Zuber said looking at pictures of the committee proposal. “This looks dark and dreary and this is looking a lot better.”
Kears said this design has been presented to township officials who appear to be on board with the idea.
“They’re going to work really hard to sort of try to accommodate as much of this design as they possibly can,” Kears said, adding this has been presented to MPP Ted Arnott who thought anything beyond the township’s budget might be able to be covered through applying for a grant.
Kears is very excited with the potential of this project and how the proposed changes will make people feel more comfortable walking around that street.
“This is going to increase the business traffic for these businesses and a healthy business pays taxes,” Kears said. “We’ve been paying taxes to pay for all the other infrastructure in the town and now it’s our turn.”
