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Thursday, September 19, 2019
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OCTOBER 30, 2019
Downtown parking strategy suggests tiered time limits
Rama Lama Ding Dong Downtown
On-street meters not recommended By John Cairns Staff Reporter
A Fall Festival was held in downtown North Battleford on Saturday Sept. 14, hosted by Downtown North Battleford BID. The festivities included entertainment, a petting zoo, games, street food and classic cars in the lot next to City Hall. The event was revived this year after being called off last year due to inclement weather. The event ran from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. For more photos, visit www.newsoptimist.ca. Photo by John Cairns
100th Street to be back in circulation this week By John Cairns Staff Reporter
Barring any last minute hiccups, 100th Street will be open to drivers this Thursday. At Monday’s City of North Battleford Planning Committee meeting at City Hall, Councillor Greg Lightfoot noted paving was being done on 100th Street that day, and asked Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink for an
update on when the road would be open. Niesink responded they were looking at “Thursday afternoon for opening.” The intention had been to open Monday, but rain delayed those plans. Crews worked through the weekend and it was on schedule for a Thursday opening. The street had been closed for extensive construction work since July, causing detours
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at the 100th Street and 11th Avenue intersection. The work was being done between 11th and 12th Avenues and included the replacement of underground pipes and infrastructure, new paving and new sidewalks with bulbouts at the corners meant to increase pedestrian safety. Lightfoot seemed to sum up the public mood when he responded, “It will be nice to have that open.”
The City of North Battleford has received the draft of a report that proposes managing downtown parking by setting time limits – perhaps tiered from two up to five hours – and may include dedicated courier parking zones. It does not recommend parking meters on the streets. Leanne DeLong, manager of community planning with Crosby Hanna & Associates, presented the draft report to the city’s Planning Committee on Monday evening. Crosby Hanna & Associates had been taken on this spring to undertake the project. Those included a stakeholder consultation and an open house last Wednesday. In her presentation DeLong noted the feedback received during those consultations included a consensus the city should continue to restrict parking through time limits and not implement on-street metered parking. At last week’s open house, DeLong noted there was feedback from one local resident concerned
about parking availability with the recent changes. “We didn’t really hear anything different from what we heard during the stakeholder consultation.” A “best practices” review was also done by the consultants looking at downtowns in similarsized cities such as Lloydminster, Humboldt, Swift Current, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and Saskatoon. One of the concerns raised in the community was that development downtown might be creating a parking shortage. However, the study pointed a different direction. “We learned there is a surplus of parking,” DeLong said. The municipal supply, even with the changes downtown, was 40 per cent, which is still seen as enough to support development downtown. She said stakeholders have seen abuse of the twohour time limits. There was also a desire for longerterm parking downtown to accommodate those who needed to be downtown beyond the two hours. Another topic discussed was the issue of parking on
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vacant sites, an issue that has plagued North Battleford’s downtown in recent years. DeLong recommended the city continue its current practice to enforce not using vacant sites. Allowing the practice to happen “inflates the supply” and makes it difficult to make changes to manage parking more effectively. The “slow and methodical” approach the city was Continued on Page 3
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