Caswell Hill ideas 'brilliant'
Concept plan unveiled for new gathering place in west-side neighbourhood
By Janet French, The StarPhoenix September 21, 2009
Planners and consultants have unveiled a concept plan for a new pedestrian-friendly gathering place at the south end of Caswell Hill.
Like a cross between the Pleasant Hill redevelopment project and the west portion of River Landing, the plans call for a new community hub in a two-block stretch that now houses the city's bus barns.
Caswell Hill community association president Dorothy Johnstone, who lives just blocks from the site, calls the plans "brilliant."
"South Caswell's kind of been ignored -- in my mind -- for some time," she said. "I'm excited to see something happening."
In the spring, the city hired a consulting agency and assigned city planner Courtney Johnson as the project manager for the revamping effort.
In June, the city hosted a community design workshop, in which Caswell residents got out their crayons and drew out their visions for the swath of land between avenues B and D, south of 25th Street and north of the railway tracks.
Planners took the seven drawings that came out of that meeting and tried to create a composite of those ideas, guided by the neighbourhood's local area plan. Popular ideas were new affordable housing units, more park space, an arts market, cafes and turning old city buildings into community gathering points.
The tentative plan, unveiled at an open house at Caswell community school Thursday, proposes closing off a block of 24th Street between avenues C and D to create a pedestrian mall.
Changes would be made to avenues C and D to make it clear to motorists this will be a pedestrian-centric area, Johnson said.
The plan also proposes hanging on to two of the transit buildings -- a 1984 office building at the northeast corner of 24th and Avenue D, and the original 1913 transit building at the southwest corner of Avenue C and 24th -- and renovating them for the community's use. The 1913 building also has heritage designation potential, planners pointed out.
What those uses will be are still up in the air -- it could be a communal kitchen, a space for non-profit groups to meet or something else, Johnson said.
The plan proposes razing the current bus storage buildings and a repair garage, and creating a 65,000-square-foot park in its place. A triangular-shaped dog park would also go at Avenue C and Jamieson. At least two sets of townhouses are proposed for the area in plots currently used as industrial parking lots. Also proposed are blocks of "medium-density" housing.
Although the Pleasant Hill and River Landing redevelopments have struggled to find interested developers to submit proposals that meet the city's visions, Johnstone does not think this will be a problem in Caswell.
"It's so close to downtown, but it's not downtown," Johnstone said. ". . . I think (developers would) be wise to jump all over this."
There's room for 28 new parking spaces next to the park, and a "Rails with Trails" footpath is proposed to be carved out on the north side of the railroad tracks.
The plan proposes attempting to create a venue such as an arts market within the new development.
None of these plans can happen, though, until the city's overstuffed bus barns find a new home.
Johnson said Saskatoon Transit is working on its capital plan for relocating the buses and should be ready to present that to city council sometime between November and January.
Right now, some residents are upset about buses idling and parking on neighbourhood streets since the bus fleet outgrew the facility.
Once the buses are gone and the barns demolished, the city will need to upgrade and install services such as power, sewer and water lines for future developments, do road improvements and landscaping and spend some time performing environmental tests on the industrial site before it can be rezoned for housing or parks.
After a decade of waiting for the buses to go away, Johnstone says she can be patient for a couple more years.
"In my mind, it's in the next two years, probably, we'll see something happening."
[email protected]
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
Source
________________________________________________________________
These are great ideas coming straight from the minds of community-minded Caswell residents, very encouraging.
River Landing, the 25th Street extension/City Yards consolidation and South Caswell plan are all destined to turn previously avoided no-man's lands into people places. Great for the west side and great for our downtown. A CBD that is surrounded by healthy, vibrant and people-friendly neighborhoods only stands to benefit.
I hope the bus barns go sooner rather than later. The Caswell Hill community seems to have such an energy, I hope that the revitalization of this great neighborhood keeps going!
Prev
Linear Mode
