City council has approved a $115,000 upgrade to one of the community’s downtown streets.
At its Aug.14 meeting, council voted to proceed with improvements to Cypress Street which connects 11th Avenue with 13th Avenue and runs behind the downtown Fire Hall.
The project involves improvements to upgrade a significant portion of the street, parking area and corners of 11th Avenue, based on a concept plan developed through community input as part of the city’s Refresh Downtown initiative.
Marianne Wade, the city’s development services manager, said the intent of Refresh Downtown is to work with land owners and developers who have received building permits from the city in an effort to construct street improvements.
Wade said in this case, Discovery Chiropractic, which is developing the site next to the fire hall, has secured a building permit for civil infrastructure improvements that the city can take as cash-in-lieu.
“The works and services frontage improvements for Discovery Chiropractic include sidewalks, road improvements to centreline of Cypress, and these works are identified in the building permit estimated at $24,000,” Wade said.
Which means Discovery Chiropractic would be funding $24,000 of the Cypress Street upgrade project. The remainder will be funded through $40,000 council allocated this year to pave the gravel Cypress Street parking lot (which will still be used to pave that lot as part of the upgrade project) and $51,000 from the city’s Capital Works Reserve.
Wade said there is also the possibility that a second developer may be able to contribute to the project.
“Beachfire Brewery is looking to expand their operations with a patio on lands that abut Cypress which may generate some works and service charges that the city can take in cash-in-lieu,” Wade said. “Beachfire Brewery would coordinate their improvements with these street upgrades and staff has yet to determine a cost estimate for these works.”
Wade said that would allow for the corners of 11th Avenue to be improved, possibly with public art and landscaping to enhance the intersection. She added that there are also plans in the works for a small parklet for 11th Avenue to address complaints from business owners that their customers are struggling to find parking because 11th has become so congested, in part because of the success of the brewery.
Mayor Andy Adams said the improvements planned “are excellent” and he praised city staff for its efforts in putting the project forward.
“I really applaud staff for piecing this together and showing some of our downtown revitalization initiatives now rather than later,” Adams said. “I think this is great to seize the opportunity as things are happening in certain parts of downtown.”
Work on the improvements is expected to take place this year. Cypress is just one several projects contained within the Refresh Downtown plan. Major upgrades to Lower and Upper Shoppers Row, which include improving underground infrastructure such as storm drains to help alleviate downtown flooding problems, are community priority projects identified in the city’s 10-Year Financial Plan. The targeted build date for Lower Shoppers Row (St. Ann’s to 11th Avenue) is 2019 while Upper Shoppers Row (11th Avenue to 13th Avenue) is slated for 2021.