Residents gets first glimpse of City’s road map

Lucy James was one resident taking part in the interactive meeting. She had her son in tow, and the two looked at photos as she applied stickers to the photos.

“It’s a great opportunity to take part in the planning of our city,” she said.

She also has suggestions for what she would like to see in Prince Albert’s future. James would like to see the city become more health conscious, providing more spaces for walking and biking.

She described how her ideal future city would look.

“I’d like to see that incorporated into the way you get around. It’s not dangerous because it’s all cars, so there’s a bike lane and there’s sidewalks everywhere.”

James said she walks around the city with her children, and sometimes, where there are no sidewalks, they are walking along in the road. But she would also like to see more gathering spots, such as outdoor restaurant patios.

A number of residents made their way through the foyer to look at the images the City had posted as part of its presentation.

These included renderings that planning and development services director John Guenther referred to as “visualizations.” He said these are important to have because they give a sense of how an addition or change would impact the street.

“The other thing is it’s supposed to push buttons. It’s supposed to have people think about what things could look like,” he said.

The illustrations show examples of how the riverbank can be opened up to public access, how a dike can be built into the area and how parks and a promenade could be added.

Bob Gill, the executive director of the Prince Albert Downtown Business Improvement District (PADBID) was also on hand for the open house.

He said he thinks the OCP furthers the vision that was set forth in PADBID’s 2003 Downtown Strategic Plan.

“So, everything from possible streetscape changes to the policies and that for the building of the buildings downtown and what the downtown needs for the economic development, what might be missing and what we need. So it’s all in the plan, it’s very good.”

Members of council had some feedback of their own on Thursday night.

Coun. Rick Orr noted that the OCP must follow certain provincially-mandate guidelines, such as the floodplain component, but there is flexibility for the City to decide how it follows through on the plan

“I think as a community, the OCP gives us the guideline, the overview of where we have to go, but really, how we get there is up to us as a community, the citizens and future councils.”

Coun. Lee Atkinson said the positives within the OCP include the co-ordinated effort across the City’s departments to work on the plan, as well as the creation of future plans and targets.

“And again, what’s that adage? ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. So, consequently, I guess, the fact that we are starting to plan finally, we should succeed,” he said.

He does, however, feel that the plan needs to incorporate a balance between investing in new development and in maintaining existing development. He said he has yet to read what the plan says in that regard.

“But this is all good about future plans and new things. But the under riding thing to me is how do we safeguard our current community neighbourhoods that are perhaps underutilized or under resourced at this moment and in this light, how do we balance that effectively?”

A second open house is planned, which Guenther expects will provide an update to the plan. The plan, however, won’t be changed until the end of the process.

“I think most of the public will be interested to see the changes to the maps and potentially even some visualization will start to clarify things a bit more.”

The open house was the first public step in the process to move the plan forward. Between now and the proposed public hearing at council in July, there will be public and agency referrals from late May to late June as well as another open house. Feedback from the public will be incorporated into the plan.

The next Official Community Plan open house is scheduled to take place on June 10, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the City Hall foyer.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

Residents gets first glimpse of City’s road map

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