McKay Street Park plans to move forward in January

Plans for the re-development of the
Mckay Street Park area may be
complete by the end of January

Plans for development of a community space at the corner of McKay Street and Kootenay Avenue on the city's west side might get a little bit further ahead in January, with Transition Prince Rupert providing some details on the status of the McKay Street Park project through their Facebook page this week.

In a post to their social media stream, Transition Prince Rupert noted that they had held a video conference with the Portland, Oregon based design team last week and that the final designs for the proposed park are close to being completed with the results to be forwarded to Prince Rupert at the end of January.

Once those design plans are in hand, the local group will be offering them up for review and feedback from the community, as well as to set in motion their fundraising ideas to help transfer the paper concept into the development stage.

The McKay Street Park is currently an abandoned and ball field which has received little in the way of maintenance from the City over the last number of years.

Earlier this year in January, Mark Lakeman an urban planner from Portland was brought in by Transition Prince Rupert, holding a three day placemaking session to facilitate a number of meetings to receive some input on how to transform the parkland into a more accessible community space.

A number of ideas were offered
up at last January's Placemaking
session on the McKay St. Park
(photo from Mayor Brain's 
Facebook page)

The topic of how to approach the rebirth of the park space provided for a number of design ideas for participants to those Placemaking meetings, but the topic itself is one which did not feature much in the discussions around the City Council table during the public sessions of the last year.

That was an approach by Council members which leaves many questions still unclear as to how the City will be dealing with any development plans once they may be finalized.

Still unknown to this point is whether the city will turn the park over to the community organization, or whether it will retain ownership of the land and what costs, if any, will be required by the City to maintain any new design program that is put in place.

Those are themes which should be explored further by Council members in the New Year, allowing for the city's elected officials to provide their contribution to the discussion and the vision that is in mind for the stretch of land on the west side of the city.

That way any potential issues that could be associated with the re-development plans could be outlined by Council through a public session, providing the public with more background on any path forward for the McKay Street plans well before the Transition Prince Rupert group launches into its fund raising plans.

You can find updates on the Transition Prince Rupert plans as well as some history on their place making efforts over the last year from their Facebook page here.

You can also review some of the work of Transition Prince Rupert through their website.

Notes on items of interest from Prince Rupert City Council can be found on our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review