GUYSBOROUGH — With the selection of community planner Fathom Studio, the “shiretown” of Guysborough’s first, comprehensive downtown makeover is officially underway.
The Dartmouth-based consultant – which specializes in architecture, design, engineering, way-finding and signage – won a joint Guysborough District Business Partnership (GDBP) and Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) tender to develop the MODG Shiretown Revitalization Plan. With a $48,882 proposal, they were selected over one other bidder.
Now, said GDBP Executive Director Ashley Cunningham Avery in an email to The Journal last week, “Fathom will work to familiarize themselves with the specific study area (from the Guysborough Memorial Hospital to the shopping centre) by gathering all relevant existing information about [it]; conducting interviews with key stakeholders; and organizing a workshop to gather feedback from the public in September.”
Following the tender’s release in June, Avery noted: “This is the first plan to include both the Main Street as well as the waterfront. Separate plans have been done for both pieces, but not as a combined comprehensive project in recent years – if ever. It aims to revitalize, present the conditions for future growth, preserve cultural heritage and improve infrastructure.”
According to the bid document, the MODG has “identified the Shiretown of Guysborough [as] the primary growth centre for the municipality, and is working to improve the economic environment for its citizens, businesses and visitors” in advance of “several major industrial projects expecting to begin in the [next] 24 months.”
It also stated that a similar project was commissioned for Canso in 2020 and that the Guysborough plan will help the MODG determine whether to consolidate the two initiatives.
“These things go hand in hand [to ensure that] the whole municipality has a growth to it,” MODG District 1 Councillor Paul Long, who represents Guysborough, Erinville and Guysborough Intervale, told The Journal last month. “We have to get people thinking that we are a place to be, not just a drive by from Halifax to Cape Breton.”
Fathom’s recommendations and final report “will be complete in January 2025 and, hopefully, will provide renderings and actionable ideas for re-envisioning and modernizing the growth center’s future development,” Avery said last week.
In May, the MODG approved spending $170,000 on a six-month contract to Halifax economic research firm ATN Strategies to help it plan how to support major, new industrial development expected across the municipality over the next several years.
