Downtown Sudbury BIA wants to know how residents feel about the downtown

The Downtown Sudbury BIA is looking for input from the general public and surveying its members about their likes and dislikes about the downtown core.

The downtown organization hired Oraclepoll Research to survey its members and BIA summer students will be at downtown events to get input from the public. The results will help develop a new strategic plan.

"Part of our strategic plan is getting input from not just our members downtown, but also the public that come downtown, so that's happening over the summer months at this time,"saysBrian McCullagh, co-chair of the Downtown Sudbury BIA.

"Somebody in the general public will have a different view than a member or business downtown so we're trying to gather the most information we can and align that in a strategic plan that makes the downtown a better place to come."

He says they felt that with the new members and a new city councillor sitting on the board, it was time to come up with a new strategic plan.

McCullagh says despite the BIA being in the news recently for its issues with the Kingsway Entertainment District, the survey has nothing to do with the KED project.

"It was time now to do another strategic plan so it really had nothing to do with what's going on in the media and in council with regards to the KED project, they do run simultaneously but it didn't have anything to do with that, it was time for a new strategic plan" says McCullagh.

The survey results will be shared with the public in the fall.