Planning resumes on Civic Park after split vote at council

A pause in planning for a community park on the site of the former Civic Arena land will resume following the defeat of a motion to pause planning and revisit the potential uses for the site.

Coun. Kari Gares made the motion to pause the planning until its determined if the cultural centre will be built, and to seek proposals for business/residential uses in combination with a park.

“I like the idea of a park, but we are a growing community, and I don’t want to lose the ability to have other uses,” Gares said.

“I think it should be a park, previous councils did a lot of work, and there are lots of reasons in those thick reports as to why it should be a park,” Mayor Victor Cumming said in voting against Gares’s motion.

“It would be a good park and development site. We could get a bit of traction if we did something smaller. Lets get three options from a consultant for that property,” Coun. Brian Quiring said.

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Preliminary planning had begun on the park sometime ago and there was community consultation done in July on what residents might want to see included.

Gares’s motion was defeated 4-3, but it’s unclear when a resumption of consultation and planning will resume.