Town of Coaldale sign. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Survey: Coaldale residents want more businesses on Main Street while maintaining small-town feel

Nov 27, 2019 | 12:02 PM

COALDALE, AB – The Town of Coaldale is moving on to the detailed design phase of their Downtown Revitalization project.

Between a survey and walking tours of the area, 100 residents have their thoughts on what they think the future of the town’s Main Street area should be.

When asked to pick two goals for the downtown core, half said that attracting new businesses and investment to the community was the most important, while 30% wanted to maintain a small-town feel.

We asked the Director of Planning and Community Development Spencer Croil how they can hope to find a balance between the two.

He says the Main Street front is a sort of stage that can work in favour of both goals.

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“One of the ways I see being able to maintain a small-town feel is to make a street that’s accessible and enjoyable for people as well as accessible by vehicles, so we can do that by ensuring there’s enough sidewalk space for different experiences for shoppers and visitors and greening up the space a bit with trees and shrubs and giving a positive experience when you’re in that space.”

Other ideas for this include investing in street furniture that would make people want to spend more time along Main Street.

Respondents to the survey were mixed between having traditional and mixed-style furnishings, while two-thirds wanted more traditional signage. Examples of these can be seen below.

Options for furnishings along Coaldale’s Main Street. (Supplied by Town of Coaldale)

Options for signage on Coaldale’s Main Street. (Supplied by Town of Coaldale)

As far as attracting new businesses and investments, Croil admits that there is only so much space along the current business corridor on Main Street, but there are ways of expanding in the future.

“There is room to grow, it just takes a little bit of coordination and cooperation between groups and businesses, and in some instances, there are residential properties that are within that downtown overlay district, so if there’s ever a point at which [homeowners] see a benefit from possibly selling or redeveloping their property there, there can incrementally be more space for businesses over time.”

Once their universal working group has been finalized, the Town of Coaldale will spend the next couple of months completing their detailed downtown design.

Croil says they could be putting out tenders for construction as early as January or February 2020.

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