An old gas station may soon become a park under a local businesswoman’s proposal to beautify St. Albert Trail.
St. Albert & District Chamber of Commerce president Lynda Moffat sent out a call for volunteers last week to put some plants on the vacant lot across from the St. Albert Inn at Gate Avenue and St. Albert Trail.
The site was most recently home to a Rent-A-Wreck dealership and was originally the site of a Texaco gas station. It has spent most of the last decade as an empty patch of grass and dirt.
“It’s a big eyesore,” Moffat said of the site. “Something as nasty looking as that doesn’t belong on the main street of a city like this.”
It’s also a very poor site for business, said Mayor Nolan Crouse, who also called it “one of the eyesores of the community.” “The only thing that would work there would be some beautification or public art.” The chamber’s plans have his full support, he added.
Council did try to lease the land and turn it into a parking lot in 2010, but held off due to safety and cost concerns. It has also previously tried to put some public art on the site, Moffat said.
Moffat said she got the idea to do something about the site through her work with the city’s St. Albert Trail Committee. “It just became more obvious that perhaps we were in a position to do something about it.”
The chamber leased the land in 2011 and now hopes to turn it into a passive park, Moffat said.
There are no firm plans yet, but Moffat envisioned a park with multiple planters, perhaps set upon some temporary wood structures, and a new fence. Public art was also possible. “What we want to do is place things on top of the soil and beautify the place so people driving by don’t see this ugly, horrible looking mess.” The billboard now on the site would stay in place, she added.
This site would not be open to the public, Moffat noted, as it contained potentially contaminated soil from its gas station days and active monitoring wells. “It’s not a place for people to be.”
The response from the business community has been overwhelming, Moffat said, and many business owners are chipping in their time and money for the project. She already has a landscape designer who’s willing to plan the park for free.
Imperial Oil has lots of these little brownfield sites across Canada, Moffat said, and hoped to highlight this park as an example of what communities can do with them.
Imperial Oil does plan to sell the land eventually, said spokesperson Pius Rolheiser, but was pleased with the chamber’s plans for it. “We always will make sure that the properties we own are being used in a way that’s acceptable to the local businesses and community.”
The chamber hopes to have the park in place by the end of this summer, Moffat said.
Questions should go to Moffat at 780-459-3505.
