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Downtown plan takes another step forward

They may just be words, but councillors have laid a foundation to ignite the future of downtown St. Albert.

They may just be words, but councillors have laid a foundation to ignite the future of downtown St. Albert.

On Monday, city council approved the terms of reference for the Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan (DARP), a move that brings the city one step closer to ending the area’s notoriously lethargic reputation.

The updated terms for DARP will provide city staff with directions for land use, building design, traffic flow and the overall appearance of the area.

The plan was originally approved in 1990 and has been revised several times, but its latest terms of reference are a combination of the mayor’s vision and ideas put forward by focus groups, along with the original plan.

“It’s a little bit of a hybrid,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse, in reference to the 30-point plan he laid out for council earlier this month.

Some of the plan’s central objectives include establishing a geographic boundary for the downtown area, a central gathering point for year-round activities, an architectural theme for the area and consideration of land use policy that includes the empty lot on the corner of St. Thomas and St. Anne streets.

The lot was not a major focus of the original plan, but earlier this month Crouse proposed that a civic building be built there to house a new library and create office space for city staff.

The city’s planning and development director Curtis Cundy called the plan a project charter that will guide future steps. The next step is to hire a third-party consultant to assess the feasibility of the objectives.

“It’s just not something we can deal with,” said Cundy. “We knew based on other council priorities that we wouldn’t have the ability to do that work [ourselves].”

During last year’s budget, council approved $189,000 for a third-party to review and update DARP.

The city will begin looking for proposals from consultants next month, and it’s expected council will approve a work plan in September. The consultant will then have until June 2010 to conduct research before an updated of version of DARP is presented to council and goes to public hearing.

Although the proposed revitalization of the downtown area has been many years in the making, Crouse said these things don’t happen overnight.

He hoped the initial plan would be bolder, but said he’s willing to give it a chance and he’s happy that his own vision helped push the effort forward.

“I’ve kick-started the process,” Crouse said. “It’s like turning a big ship on the ocean, it’s going to move one degree at a time but it will eventually turn.”

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