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Options being considered for new park in north Lethbridge |
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Written by Gerald Gauthier LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Thursday, November 19 2009, 9:41 PM |
Lethbridge residents are getting a new outdoor place to play on the northside, and city officials want your ideas on what it should include.
The City of Lethbridge is inviting citizens to have their say in the planning phase for a new regional park to be developed in the Uplands-Legacy Ridge area.
Whether it’s an outdoor amphitheatre, nature trails, a dog run or any other notion, all ideas and comments are being welcomed, said Ryan Carriere, manager of parks planning for the city.
“What we really want people to do is be creative,” he said. “Our focus for this is the public consultation — what does the public want?”
Ideas and feedback can be submitted on idesign, a new project web link launched this week. Simply visit the city’s website www.lethbridge.ca and click on the idesign link to get to a project questionnaire. Next spring, the planning phase will expand to include open houses and a unique storefront location where the public can interact with members of the project’s design team.
The Hardieville-Legacy Ridge-Uplands area structure plan, approved in 2002, identifies two potential sites for the future North Lethbridge regional park: immediately north of existing Uplands development and on grassland southwest of Legacy Ridge. The initial planning stage is to be complete by May 2010. The second stage of detailed design work is expected to take up to a year after that.
Based on the elements most wanted by the public, designers will determine which site is most suitable to accommodate those elements, Carriere said.
“We’re not asking people ‘what site do you want?’ We’re asking them ‘what do you want in a park?’”
The city is putting together a community advisory committee for the project and is seeking three people to serve as citizens-at-large, representing the overall community. Committee members will work closely with city officials and the project team to identify opportunities and constraints for the project as well as participate in the planning process.
Citizen-at-large applications are being taken until Nov. 27. Details and application forms are available by visiting the city website, clicking on the idesign icon and then clicking on “Get Involved” at the bottom right of the page.
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