Town of Sundre councillors questioned administration's direction for the Corridor Enhancement Project, during the governance meeting on June 10.
The goal of the project is to beautify the corridor through visual elements, but councillors said they believe parking should be the first priority.
“I just can't see a great corridor along that highway as is,” said Coun. Myron Thompson.
Thompson and Coun. Chris Vardas, who runs a business on the corridor, agreed that parking is the big issue. They said parking accessibility was easier when the highway was single laned with a parking lane.
During the meeting, administration requested the approval from council to form an ad hoc corridor enhancement committee.
“Without the buy-in of the businesses as the champions of the project, it will not matter what method of innovative funding is considered, the project will not be successful,” said Kim Galloway, the town's economic development officer, in a report to council.
“We suggest that a corridor enhancement committee be developed for the period of the project to act as the champions for the project and to aid in determining the many funding options available,” she said.
Advantages of the committee include the business owners becoming champions to other business owners and that the businesses would realize the cost involved in the enhancements, she said.
“The businesses are instrumental in problem solving the funding of the enhancements in collaboration with the Town of Sundre,” she said.
Over Coun. Paul Isaac's objection, the issue was to be discussed again during yesterday's council meeting.
“It's going to take four to five months for administration to tell us what we know today,” he said, in regards to the formation of the committee and the priorities of the project.
In upcoming weeks, town officials will be hosting a public open house, after hosting two last month. Town officials are seeking feedback from the community on what residents would like to see implemented in the future.
The project aims to inform future purchasing decisions on elements including benches, planters, decorative lighting and garbage cans.
It also aims to address potential storefront improvements and a new signage program to support businesses that don't have highway frontage.
Any plan is subject to Alberta Transportation regulations, so re-constructing downtown is not an option.
The project is a “second step” to a similar project town officials were looking at a few years ago, she said.
After the open house this month, town officials will incorporate the feedback received from the public into a report. The plan is for council to approve the report by the end of 2013 and then town officials would move forward with the action plan in 2014.
