St. Albert's downtown could be in store for a major facelift with high-rise towers and an array of urban shops, restaurants and offices in close proximity to public spaces like a new civic square, according to a plan in front of council today.
The city's first update to the downtown area redevelopment plan (DARP) in 20 years calls for significantly higher housing densities, stricter land-use and architectural controls, improved street design, parking and trails over a smaller footprint that makes the Sturgeon River a focal point.
The new plan proposes dividing the downtown into four "character areas," the Perron District, Millennium Heights, Gateway on the Trail and Riverfront, each with its own unique traits.
Gateway on the Trail calls for the highest densities with 10- to 25-storey towers, mixed residential, office, retail and institutional uses. The larger density with towers facing St. Albert Trail would help elevate the area's profile, an identified disadvantage of the current downtown, the plan states.
The Perron District continues to serve as the retail core for downtown. The vision aims to fill current gaps in store frontage with mixed-uses but mostly calls for retail and restaurants with some residential in an area bound by Perron Street and St. Anne Street and St. Thomas Street. The plan also calls for more green space and slower traffic to improve walkability.
The Riverfront would be home to civic government and public gatherings for festivals, cultural activities and recreation. It would feature a civic square and improvements to Millennium Park to promote activities like skating in the winter and a skate park in the summer.
The civic square, located between St. Albert Place and taking over the current central parking lot, would open up the downtown for more festivals and special events.
Sir Winston Churchill Avenue would get an urban facelift to create Millennium Heights with street-oriented buildings and a mix of housing. Taché Street would become a green corridor linking the Red Willow Trail to new development at Grandin mall and Grenadier Park.
Density targets
Overall, downtown would be significantly denser under DARP than even the density targets imposed by the Capital Region Board (CRB). The plan calls for 238 units per net residential hectare, five to eight times more than the CRB's targets.
The plan outlines new minimum and maximum densities, the largest being closest to St. Albert Trail and St. Anne Street, and St. Anne Street and Sir Winston Churchill Avenue (10 to 25 storeys). The Grandin mall redevelopment area would be between four and 20 storeys, while most of the mixed-use shopping areas on Perron Street and St. Thomas would be between three to five storeys.
The plan emphasizes the need for main-street retail space, proposing that some areas have at least 70 per cent of ground floor space dedicated for retail, restaurants or services. Professional offices would be discouraged from locating on ground floors in retail areas and the civic square, and would be banned on Perron Street.
The plan does not call for specific architectural themes in the downtown, but recommends exploring the idea of an urban design review panel, the use of quality building materials and banning materials like stucco and vinyl siding.
Street network
Downtown streets would be altered to reduce the speed and volume of vehicular through traffic and improve the mix of transportation modes with trails and sidewalks. The plan recommends narrowing Perron Street to four traffic lanes with the two outer lanes for parking. That would allow for larger six-metre-wide pedestrian areas for more foot traffic, street benches, trees and café seating.
St. Anne Street would be extended southwest so it diagonally bisects downtown and connects to Millennium Park. It would feature three traffic lanes, one for off-peak parking. Boulevards would be reconfigured to allow for mixed-use development and civic square uses.
St. Thomas Street would feature a wider median separating traffic lanes, allowing the area to function like a linear park capable of hosting events. The green space would be called Cardinal Walk after St. Albert Place architect Douglas Cardinal.
Parking
The plan is critical of current parking practices where several surface lots are spread throughout downtown.
It calls for a new parking strategy to address supply, location and management for more "unobtrusive" solutions like underground or aboveground parkades or screened parking areas. It suggests creating a development levy or 'cash-in-lieu policy' to help finance parking structures.
The plan calls on the city to work with the province to sustain the Sturgeon River, an identified natural recreation and cultural feature.
Implementing portions of the plan will require updates to the city's capital planning documents. The primary funding source should be development levies, the plan states, but also identifies the potential for council-approved budgets and a community revitalization levy. All money would be pooled into a St. Albert community enhancement fund.
"To achieve the vision of the DARP it will require deliberate action, leadership, co-operation and substantial investment over time by all stakeholders and elected officials," the plan says. "Approval of this plan is simply the first step in realizing the potential for downtown St. Albert."
A public hearing is set for July 5 at 5 p.m.
