Project Investment:

• Island Coastal Economic Trust: $190,000
• Towns for Tomorrow: $400,000
• City of Duncan: $572,706
• Total Budget: $1,162,706

Project Highlight:

Expansion of the Duncan Farmers Market has resulted in an estimated increase of total vendor sales equally approximately $122,500 annually.

Downtown Duncan has carved out a unique identity on Vancouver Island as a destination for specialty shopping, gourmet dining, community celebrations and a weekly farmers’ market. To build on the strength of its downtown core and encourage continued commercial growth and cultural activities, the City of Duncan sought to make the area more pedestrian-friendly and accessible to seniors, families with infant strollers and people with physical disabilities. The farmers’ market was becoming very popular and there was a need to expand.

The Craig Street Revitalization project included pavement restoration of Craig Street, and design features intended to enhance the pedestrian experience – including the installation of widened sidewalks, bicycle racks, pedestrian refuges, enhanced vegetation, ornamental street lighting featuring public art and comfortable street furniture. The project has created a more people-friendly downtown by adding accessibility features, which provide a safer, more attractive pedestrian corridor encouraging physical activity, enhanced urban forestation with an expanded tree canopy and vegetation, plus the inclusion of energy-efficient design components such as automated irrigation and underground wiring for street lighting.

Completed in December 2011, the Craig Street improvements have created an inviting public gathering place and a vital marketplace venue for local farmers and artisans to interact with visitors to Duncan. The reworked design has allowed for a 25% expansion in the number of vendors at the farmers’ market and it has been a catalyst for further investment by local businesses to renovate and improve building facades in the downtown core.