Town council will be discussing the final draft of the Open Spaces and Trails Master Plan at a future council meeting following a presentation of the final report at the Nov. 19 policies and priorities committee meeting.
The report was written by ISL Engineering and included input from community sessions and from a committee of community members and town staff. The work was conducted over the past 18 months. It outlined up to $1,275,000 in upgrades to be contemplated over 10 years, plus an additional $2.1 million beyond that 10-year period.
The report outlined five recommendations for implementation. These included reviewing the plan after five years to take into account capital budgets and evaluating those against implementation recommendations. Other recommendations included assessing operation and maintenance requirements against the design of improvements, integrating the 10-year plan into the town's capital plan and integrating it with the Municipal Development Plan and other planning documents. Town administrators should continue developing partnerships with community groups to support implementation of the plan, the report's authors suggested.
Doug Wagstaff, the town's community services director, said that while accessibility to parks and trails for those in wheelchairs and others limited by mobility impairments is a priority, accessibility improvements will be made as development in areas near parks and trails proceeds.
While Coun. Wade Bearchell said it's good to look at new amenities in town, those facilities must be looked at in terms of maintenance costs.
“Council down the road may have trouble maintaining these facilities. It's something we need to consider before we build these things,” he said, adding that the town also needs to consider maintenance in the winter.
Warren Smith, a former town councillor who sat on the committee that helped draft the report, said during the meeting that parks and trails have a summer bias and that more should be done to look at how they could be used in the winter. He said the former Zec property at the intersection of 54 Street and 50 Avenue, as well as O.R. Hedges Park, are two examples of good pieces of property that could have cross-country skiing on them during winter.
“All trails don't have to be paved. There's a real benefit to not paving trails,” Smith added.
Following the meeting, Mayor Judy Dahl said she was pleased that so many community members came forward to help steer the process toward completion. She said the town plans to use the report as a guideline and measure the report against the resources the municipality has at any given time.
“I believe it's our due diligence to provide the final (pieces). We need to get back out and (discuss) what we now have with the public. Perhaps it's another open meeting to share it with them. The information in there was well-researched and well thought out. We need to be able to tie our budget dollars towards those (recommendations) to make them successful,” she said.
