KITCHENER — New recommendations from Kitchener’s neighbourhood strategy are designed to get rid of red tape and make it much easier for community groups to start a community garden, organize a street party, or find creative ways to slow traffic.

The city released 18 recommendations aimed at helping neighbours connect and work together to make their neighbourhood a better place at a news conference Tuesday that also included a rainbow-coloured cake and a two-metre kangaroo.

The kangaroo, named Kirby, is the mascot of Your Neighbourhood Credit Union, a keen sponsor of the city’s neighbourhood effort.

“Communities are stronger when we know and support our neighbours,” said Matthew Lukas, branch manager of the credit union.

The recommendations were the result of months of consultations. Trained volunteers went across the city from April to August and talked to more than 5,000 people about what works, and what doesn’t, in their neighbourhoods.

“We went to seniors’ residences, parks, schools, skateboard parks, bus stops, shopping centres and neighbourhood gatherings” to hear from a broad swath of people, including those the city often doesn’t hear from, said Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.

The strategy’s aim, he said, is that residents themselves should decide what works best in their neighbourhood and the city should get out of the way, while providing the tools to make those ideas happen.

“The strategy was never intended to be about the city coming to a neighbourhood and saying, ‘This is what you need.’ Or about the city picking some specific neighbourhoods that we label as struggling and attempting to help lift them up,” Vrbanovic said. “Instead, we recognize that every neighbourhood already has great things happening.”

Recommendations include:

• Reduce the red tape to hold events such as a street party by streamlining procedures for signage, road closures, park permits, noise exemptions and insurance.
• Host an annual “placemaking challenge” that would award a grant to make a public place more inviting for people to spend time there together.
• Triple the total amount of matching grant money available for neighbourhood projects to $60,000 per year, and the double the maximum grant to $10,000.
• Change the way the city plans improvements to parks, playgrounds and trails to consult residents from the start.
• Encourage tree planting on privately owned land by partnering with a nursery to provide discounts for residents buying trees.
• Have a bookable Event-in-a-Trailer that delivers gear such as barricades, tables, sound system and tents to community events.
• Change zoning and urban design rules to encourage front porches.
• Research what’s being done elsewhere to create more inviting indoor and outdoor spaces in areas where there are lots of apartment buildings.
• Create a website to share ideas and to let people know about neighbourhood events.

Michael May, who heads the city’s community services department, said it’ll probably take three to five years to implement all the recommendations. The city wants to hear from residents about which recommendations the city should act on first.

For more information on the strategy, or to comment on the recommendations, go to kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitchener/Neighbourhood-Strategy.asp.

The final strategy will be presented to council in February.