Residents have plans for Saskatchewan Drive
City online survey finds people have various suggestions to improve the area
Wider lanes and a better pedestrian experience are just a couple of improvements residents want to see as part of the city’s Saskatchewan Drive Corridor Project, according to an online survey conducted earlier this month.
“It doesn’t look like there’s any one consensus that people have for how they’d like to see the corridor,” said Shanie Leugner, manager of infrastructure engineering for the City of Regina. “Comments range from, ‘It’s great just the way it is’ to ‘everything about it needs to be improved or changed.”
Administration is currently going through the nearly 3,000 survey responses received when the survey closed on Jan. 18. Leugner said they will sift through them to try to group the responses into themes that can guide the consultant hired by the city to come up with design concept options for the corridor.
The city hopes to have concept designs ready for a public information session by June.
“We don’t really have any preconceived ideas of what the corridor will be other than we know we have existing policy that directs certain elements,” said Leugner.
Things like the Official Community Plan (Design Regina) and the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) will have implications for the Sask. Drive Corridor Project.
For example, the TMP has identified a cycling network, of which Saskatchewan Drive is not a part. If the feedback collected shows a strong desire for cycling infrastructure on Saskatchewan Drive, then the city will have to try to balance what it is hearing from residents and what policies are guiding changes to the area.
The Regina Downtown Neighbourhood Plan, which “identified and envisioned Saskatchewan Drive as a Grand Avenue,” will also have an impact on concept designs because it has policy goals that include things like broader sidewalks, special intersection treatment and lighting, landscaping and the possibility of public art.
“We’ll just be looking to see what we hear from the public, comparing it to what the policy direction is and then try to match those up the best we can to come up with some options that the public might want to see,” said Leugner.
Leugner also noted that in some of the feedback received via the online survey, there’s a misconception that the city intends to rename Saskatchewan Drive as Grand Avenue, but that’s not the case, she said. The term is simply used to describe important gateways and corridors that bring a lot of people into and through Regina’s downtown.
The city plans to publish some of the public feedback on their website next month, after they’ve had a chance to go through it all. Before design options are released, the city will also consult with stakeholders — directly affected adjacent landowners.
If a clear option wins out over the others once they are revealed to the public in June, the consultant will create more detailed designs. If not, the city will engage in more public consultation. Leugner said it is likely to be at least two years until construction could start and even then, construction may need to be done in phases rather than in one season.
Residents can find more information on the Saskatchewan Drive Corridor Project at regina.ca/saskdrive.