Merchants delighted with the plan to revitalize downtown Chicoutimi

The merchants of Racine Street are delighted with the Special Urban Planning Plan (PPU) unveiled Tuesday by the City of Saguenay to revitalize downtown Chicoutimi.

We see that they really want to revitalize it, bring it back much better. I am very happy and I have great confidence that it will happensaid David Janelle, chef-owner of La Cuisine restaurant since 2017, on Wednesday.

We are happy not to feel abandoned by the City this timeadded the entrepreneur joined in his business.

Same story at the Twist boutique, located a little further on the commercial artery. It was time!exclaims owner Guylaine Vézina, who emphasizes that the plan is a very very very good news.

The day before, the mayor of Saguenay, Julie Dufour, revealed a series of 80 actions to make downtown Chicoutimi more attractive. His team wishes in particular to encourage the construction of new housing, the appearance of local businesses and pedestrian circulation in a safe manner, by also focusing on densification, sustainable mobility and green spaces.

The elected official also confirmed that the area is the true city center of Saguenay. For several years, municipal councilors have been arguing over which city center should represent the economic heart of Saguenay.

Guylaine Vézina is especially delighted with this recognition. There, we converge towards one and the same voice which says that it will be Chicoutimi and that is where we investsaid the shopkeeper.

For his part, David Delisle, co-owner of the Laflamme et company boutique, is very happy. It was time for it to happenhe mentions.

The person who owns two stores on Racine Street dreams of the city center being a living environment lively where it is good to reside and have fun. If we want to go out, go shopping, go for a walk on a street, have a coffee, have a drink at the end of the day, it’s not complicated, it’s on the Racine that it happens. In Saguenay, it’s therehe wants people to think.

Mireille Jean satisfied

The sector advisor, Mireille Jean, conducted several consultations with citizens and businesses to find out their vision of the city center. According to her, the 72 pages of PPU are largely the fruit of his work.

In fact, we find a lot of my work in there, even as the mayor highlighted it yesterday during the municipal council and I thank hersays the chosen one.

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She would have started the process for Saguenay to move into third gear. I didn’t do that to show the mayor anything. I did this, firstly, because the city center was important. I didn’t see the action that was taking place within the municipal apparatus.

At that moment, the actions I had in mind, I wanted to share them with the population. The workshops were done with this in mind. One of my goals was to make this a bit of a current issueshe put forward.

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Mireille Jean believes that it is mission accomplished: the revitalization of the city center is now one of Saguenay’s priorities, even if concrete investments are still expected.

According to a report by Claude Bouchard