McKay Street Park concepts to be revealed at mid month Info session

Another summer has come to an end
and the McKay Street park area is still
mostly an overgrown bit of scrubland

For the youngsters of the McKay/Kootenay Avenue Area another summer has come to an end and with the departure of those summer days and early evenings another year has passed by with only scrubland to view and few options for play available, the promise of some kind of parkland changes still a bit far off it seems.

Perhaps though, the summer of 2016 will be the last one to roll through without some kind of progress on the long promised ambitions for the parcel of land at the corner of McKay and Kootenay.

Mayor Lee Brain took to his Facebook page over the weekend to share what he described as exciting news, with an update on where the proposed development stands and an invitation for the city's residents to come to a September 14th information session to see some of the concepts that are being explored.

An information sheet has been posted to Facebook (see below) which outlines how the process works with the public invited to the Kaien Anti Poverty Office in the M'akola Mckay Street Housing Development on the 14th from 3 to 6 PM to view the three concepts that have come from the consultation sessions held back in January of this year.

Concept plans for a proposed redevelopment of
the McKay Street Park space will be revealed on September 14th
(click to expand)

At that September 14th session residents can offer up some comments and opinions to the designer, the reveal session the first step in what is being called th "transformation of the McKay Street Park into something magical for the neighbourhood and community."

It has also been noted that organizers plan to have the display set up at a number of locations around town in the near future and are also considering an online survey to solicit more feedback on the topic.

The McKay Street Committee which is overseeing the process of development for the park space includes Transition Prince Rupert, the City of Prince Rupert, Kaien Anti-Poverty Society, Bahai Fellowship, Prince Rupert Early Years, Salmonberry Trading Co. Society and the Prince Rupert Ministerial Association.

While the project committee has been busy trying to raise funds and deliver the concepts for public review, the topic of the city park on the west side has not been examined, or even mentioned much as part of the City Council public sessions on the year to this point.

With some movement now on the horizon towards the project, City Council may wish to provide a bit more background to city residents on how they see the process of development moving forward, particularly when it comes to providing more details on whether the land would remain part of the city's inventory, or be turned over to the Committee for development and upkeep.

Bringing the topic to the public forum of a Council session will also allow for City Council members to share their thoughts on how they see the process moving forward and whether they are all in agreement with the vision that has been put forward by the Mayor and the McKay Street Committee to this point.

A facebook page has been created for the September 14th event and you can learn more about what is planned for the design reveal session here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review