Residents in the Avondale neighbourhood could get a glimpse into the future of their community on Tuesday as the city will be holding the final online engagement session for the Avondale Area Redevelopment Plan.
The plan, which covers the area where the Leisure Centre, Peace Wapiti Academy, Composite High School, and Legion Field are located, will look at the short and long-term future of the area.
Senior Planner Dan Wheldon says over the past year or so, they’ve held several public consultation sessions, with varying degrees of wants and needs, however, he feels they’ve come up with a plan which should tick a lot of boxes for a wide audience.
“The direction of the plan is to keep much of the area under recreation use, and that’s certainly consistent with what a lot of the landowners would have liked to see the area stay at,” he adds.
The 16.9-hectare chunk of the Avondale neighbourhood has a long history, with the city only getting ownership of the land in 2019 after a swap with the province for an area in Royal Oaks, which set the stage for the comp replacement school.
Wheldon adds for 2021, they feel confident in what the future of the area will look like, however, he knows that far down the line, it will likely be up for debate again.
“We can’t say that 30 years from now that the priorities in the community are going to be the same as they are now… the intent of the plan is to create a vision you work towards,” he says.
“If the needs of the community or priorities of the community are no longer the same, or reflected in the redevelopment plan, then there’s an opportunity to create a new plan.”
The session is set for March 2nd from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., registration is required.