Camp Picton revitalization

New business park owners outline preliminary plans

Members of Council were excited to hear an outline of preliminary plans to revitalize the former Camp Picton site, known as Loch-Sloy Business Park, in a virtual presentation made to council last Tuesday. Tim Jones, representing PEC Community Partners shared some information about the site’s new owners and the experience they bring to the project, along with initial ideas for the future of the site located at County Road 22 on the outskirts of Picton. He noted that at this time they were only looking at the approximately 70-acre site (of the larger 700-acre parcel of land) where the heritage buildings are located. His role within the partnership will be to lead the revitalization of this specific area.

PEC Community Partners is a group of four Ontario-based community building companies. “Together, we bring a range of experience to the projects on the hill, including work on master plan communities, the adaptive re-use of heritage sites, mixed-use development, home building (including affordable housing), creative placemaking and cultural tourism,” said Jones. “Revitalization is not going to have a beginning or an end, but it’s going to rather evolve over time.“ Jones said he is often asked two questions. The first is why did PEC Community Partners buy the site, and the second is, what is the vision. “First and foremost, we fell in love with the former air base, its history, the buildings, and the more we learned about the role that it’s played historically in the life of the County, the more intrigued we were about its future,” he said.

In terms of a vision, Jones said they are not approaching this project with a pre-conceived vision or idea. “What we are doing is making a creative placemaking methodology to uncover the potential of the place and ensure that what we create is authentically rooted in County culture.” He said they intend to build a vision for the project from the ground up in the community. “Right now, we are in a discovery stage where we are meeting with people, exploring shared interests, understanding what the needs are, and determining the project priorities,“ Jones said. “Knowing we were able to build on the remarkable legacy of all of those who have come before us was certainly important, and we are excited to be part of something and creating something that is truly extraordinary.”

The deputation focused on three areas of vitalization the group intends to work on in the coming months. “They involve the adaptive re-use of heritage buildings, what we are calling greenscaping, as well as placemaking,” explained Jones, who added they are intending to build on the work of the previous property manager and continue to improve the conditions for the tenants. “In 2022, we are going to focus our efforts on two zones of revitalizations, the northwest area and the southern area.” Give the very large site, he said they were not going to try to tackle everything at once. He said their first focus will be on the adaptive re-use of heritage building and some of the vacant buildings they have inherited. “We are making a very strong commitment to heritage and we plan to save as many buildings as possible.”

While they have already started to have conversations with many potential stakeholders during what Jones describes as the ‘discovery’ stage, he said it will grow over time and they welcome ideas on who else they should be speaking to. They will then move to the next phase, the ‘ideation’ phase, which will involve a series of curated conversations, walking tours, roundtables, in-person and virtual meetings, something Jones describes as an on-going process as potential partners and partnership opportunities are identified, “as shared interests of mutual interest translate into meaningful valuable partners where everybody benefits”. He said one of the things they are excited about is creating three event venues as platforms for collaboration with the community, including the Lecture Hall, the Sergeants Mess Hall, as well as the Drill Hall for larger events, also outdoor stages. “These spaces have traditionally played a role as convening spaces, so we think there is a terrific opportunity to bring them back to life; we are imagining these places for music and comedy, performance, talks, conferences and private gatherings.”

The second area they are looking at is greenscaping and landscape design. “We are already at work investing in landscaping throughout the site, as well as the creation of a central park garden which will integrate art and nature along with music programming,” explained Jones. “As we embark on this process, we are going to be taking a regenerative approach and seeking to strengthen local eco-systems.” He said the third area is around site activation. “We’ve started to invest in programming and placemaking activities, we will be embarking on a multi-year procurement program that engages local artists, performers, musicians, and others,” he said. “We intend to host and produce all manner of events and happenings and we intend to do this in a way that is sensitive to everything else that is going on in the County and look to establish some shared objectives.”

Councillor Stewart Bailey was curious about timelines, especially regarding the Sergeants Mess. “There’s no water and it still needs upgrades in terms of electricity, sewer septic and that kind of thing,” he said. “If you are going to revitalize these things with those things in mind, how long is it going to take you?” Jones said they were exploring that. “Looking at medium-interim and interim uses and how quickly we can get public services, both water and sanitary connections back to the site, it’s going to take a lot of creativity.” Councillor Brad Nieman asked about the airport portion of the site, which he noted was still in use, and what the plans were for it. Jones said it was something they are investigating. “We are in the process of engaging people; we are trying to get the lay of the land in terms of how airports work and what we’ve inherited.” When Nieman asked it the airport could be used this year, Jones said, “It will depend on how our conversations go, it’s part of the exploration. We will see what can be done.”

Councillor Phil St-Jean spoke to the multitude of motor sport activities and events, car clubs, arm drop drag racing, motorcycle shows and tractor pulls, saying they were important local events that serviced local people and those activities should continue. “We are definitely going to be pursing the continuation of those activities, year-round,” confirmed Jones. “We are very deeply committed to this and we know that the whole can be so much bigger than the sum of the individual parts when we work together,” he said. Mayor Steve Ferguson said Camp Picton remains an almost sacred site in Prince Edward County. “I am delighted what you presented tonight that the site will receive the respect it deserves that will allow it continue and thrive in the future.” Tim Jones’s deputation forms part of the February 22 council meeting and is available for viewing on the County’s YouTube channel at youtu.be/WIHYTTtDjWQ. The agenda and referenced documentation are available at the County’s website (pecounty.on.ca).