City to present 4 proposed plans for exhibition lands

Residents invited to view options at public workshop to be held Tuesday

Edmonton residents will get their first chance to view four possible land use options for the 220-plus acre exhibition lands at a special public workshop hosted by the city Tuesday.

Exhibition lands initiative manager Lyall Brenneis said the event will feature concept plans, hourly presentations and the opportunity for attendees to have their say on their preferred option for the Northlands site.

Brenneis said the open house will enable his team to “see what really resonates with the community.”

He said he is excited about the chance to unveil the options.

“You can only talk about ideas for so long and then it is about putting those ideas onto paper to create concepts,” he said on Monday.

“It feels like we are making some good progress towards the final plan, which will be really great.”

Following the workshops, the list will be narrowed down to two or three options. Those will then be submitted to an urban planning committee meeting in midNovember.

Based upon council’s feedback, Brenneis’s team will go back to the community with one preferred concept for another engagement period.

That will then go to a public hearing in the first quarter of 2019, he said.

The four concepts range from a lower public investment plan that has minimal municipal funding attached and a majority of private sector based funding to the other end of the spectrum which would require more money from the city.

Brenneis said the plans being put forward were generated from solicited and unsolicited submitted ideas from the public coupled with technical and market analysis and input from community, business and developers.

Just over 100 ideas were submitted to the city during an earlier consultation process.

The land in question covers the area from 120 Avenue in the north including the Coliseum lands to 112 Avenue in the south, Wayne Gretzky Drive in the east and the LRT line and the edge of Parkdale and Eastwood communities in the west.

The workshop will be at Bellevue Community Hall at the east end of Borden Park, 7308 112 Ave.

An afternoon session runs between 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and an evening event is 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Presentations will be held every hour at 1:15 p.m., 2:15 p.m., 5:15 p.m., 6:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.