By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Plans unveiled for Lethbridge Civic Common area

Oct 19, 2018 | 3:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE – They’ve been in the works for about nine months, and Monday, Oct. 15, plans for Lethbridge’s Civic Common area, including City Hall, the RCMP Building, YMCA and Civic Arena areas were unveiled to city council.

The plan will guide development in the future, explains Urban Revitalization Manager Andrew Malcolm.

“Some of the features include creating what they call a ‘civic lane,’ a space throughout the middle of the area that would be primarily designed for parking, but then ….say on a weekend, it would be flexible enough that you could create it into an event space or a festival space or a place where you could have people on.”

On top of that, there would also be a market plaza, used for other events, festivals or food trucks throughout the year. The civic green space will be revitalized and will have more green space around it as well.

As for the buildings which include the skating arena, RCMP building and the YMCA – which is scheduled to close at the end of 2018, Malcolm explains what could go in their places.

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“All buildings have a life span and so we know that a number of the buildings are ageing and would be up for some sort of replacement or renewal within the 20 to 30 years or sooner…it was made very evident that that should be made public or civic, community- focused buildings and not necessary retail, residential or commercial or those types of things.”

There is no timeline at this point for the changes to get underway, other than replacing some infrastructure in stages.

“Some of the immediate things we’ll be looking at will be some of the public realm improvements. So, some things we can do in terms of removing un-needed fencing, lighting. Just things as opportunities come up. Say they’re replacing a sidewalk, is it in its most appropriate place? These things will take place in the short term.”

Future development Malcolm says, really depends upon money and council’s long-term decisions.

Council unanimously accepted the new plans as information and filed them. The 16-page plan can be viewed here: http://meetings.lethbridge.ca/sirepub/cache/2/a003x05iln12ckhab5a03t1i/21799710192018034540215.PDF