Should St. Albert's downtown park have pancake dispensers? How about a waterslide or a skate park? And should it keep the name "Millennium"?
Suggestions are pouring in this summer as the city seeks the public's ideas to redesign Millennium Park, which is the empty field east of the 50+ club on Taché Street.
About 15 residents were at the St. Albert Curling Club Thursday for a focus group session on the park.
Millennium Park has historically been an underused park space, said Adryan Slaght, planning and development director for the City of St. Albert. Downtown St. Albert, meanwhile, is missing an open outdoor place for public gatherings. With the realigned St. Anne Street giving better access to the park, the city now has a chance to turn this place into a focal point for downtown.
The city is starting with more or less a clean slate when it comes to the park's design, Slaght said. While the Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan depicts a Millennium Park with a large plaza and a civic building to one side, he emphasized that this was just one possible design for the park.
"It's not just going to be a soccer field," he said, adding that it could be a soccer field if people really wanted one.
"It's going to be something that's unique."
Many ideas
Jill Robertson of the consulting firm Dialog is running about 14 formal and pop-up forums this year (including the one that happened Thursday) to get people talking about the park's future.
So far, she said residents have suggested adding everything from waterslides to washrooms to pancake dispensers to the park, with many calling for a balance between active and passive use and a respect for the park's extensive forest.
"There seems to be a consensus emerging that people are very much interested in having this (park) become that heart or that key public open space in St. Albert," Robertson said.
Focus group member Deirdre Allen used markers to sketch out a plan to add a central pond to the park. Surrounded by artistically designed seats, this pond could serve as a skating rink in the winter and be drained to act as a bandstand, she explained.
Retiree Dennis Hill emphasized the importance of accessibility in the park, noting that the downtown core had a large and growing seniors population.
Jason Lucas, organizer of the St. Albert Shake Down BMX competition, lobbied for a skate or BMX site in the park.
"All the kids in the community dabble in scooters, mountain bikes, and BMX at some point in their life, and St. Albert needs to acknowledge that."
Carol Watamaniuk of the Visual Arts Studio Association of St. Albert said the park should have a naturalized look similar to that found at the community recognition monument on Perron Street. She also suggested it have a children's garden, which is a garden that features kid-friendly plants such as sunflowers.
She and others at the focus group emphasized the need to co-ordinate the park's look with its surroundings, noting that it currently faces a weedy back alley full of broken bricks.
Slaght said the hope was that the park's redevelopment would encourage nearby landowners to renovate their properties.
Several residents suggested changing the name of the park, with some questioning why it was named Millennium. (The space was named by the St. Albert Family Fest committee to commemorate the year 2000, the Gazette archives suggest.)
Slaght said a name change was possible, but doing so would mean changing a lot of city documents that refer to the park.
Residents will have more chances to speak out on Millennium Park during the food truck rally at Grain Elevator Park Friday (Aug. 26 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and at the farmers' market next Saturday (Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). A draft plan should be ready by Oct. 5.
Questions should go to project manager Teaka Broughm at [email protected].
