City Council session takes note that McKay street park bid came up short in BCAA competition

The topic of what's next for the McKay
Street Park was brought up as part
of the Committee of the Whole
Public comment portion of
Monday's Council session

The five finalists for consideration in this year's BCAA Better place to Play competition were released on Monday and unfortunately for those hoping to see some progress for the Transition Prince Rupert Society plans for the derelict McKay Street park, when it came to the final five communities, the Prince Rupert bid did not make the final cut.

The competition host by the BCAA settled on five other communities for the nomination, with Crawford Bay, Lillooet, and communities in Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island now among the Final Five nominees.

As we outlined on the blog in mid May, the Transition Prince Rupert plan which came as part of the Placemaking sessions of January had been submitted for consideration and a chance to go into the final voting phase.

The top prize for the successful project was to be a 100,000 dollar donation to be put towards the winning city's park revitalization plans.

The topic of the competition did come up for a short review at Monday's City Council session as a resident of the McKay Street area outlined her disappointment at the news of the day and inquired of Mayor Brain as to what comes next for the public space in that neighbourhood.

The Mayor provided an update as to where Transition Prince Rupert will go from here, noting that Transition Prince Rupert has been working to finalize its financing to get the design completed, having conducted fundraising with local groups towards the twenty five thousand dollar cost of the design work.

He added that should Transition Prince Rupert find success in their fundraising, they will then take the design process back to the community and once they have settled on the design, Transition Prince Rupert will then look towards another round of fundraising to help construct the new McKay street park.

He noted that it is hoped that there will be a start on that process in 2017.

So far, Prince Rupert City Council has not provided for much discussion in Council chambers on the theme of the Transition Prince Rupert Society plans for the city owned public park in the McKay Street area. Something that has left the bulk of the planning and information sharing to the community group, which for the most part communicates their plans through the Transition Prince Rupert Facebook page and website.

Still to be outlined for the community in a public session by City Council is how the City will address the topic of turning over the public space to the Society for development and if the city will remain responsible for upkeep of the proposed new use for the site.

As well, to this point, Council has not advised who will retain responsibility for the land in the area and what cost if any the process may provide for the City.

You can review the discussion from Monday related to the McKay Street Park plans from the City's Video Archive starting at the very start of Monday's session, the comments and discussion took place during the Committee of the Whole Session where local residents can raise items of interest and/or concern.



More items related to Monday's Council session can be found on our Council Timeline.

Further background on Civic issues can be reviewed on our Council Archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review