Proposals sought for Charlottetown eastern gateway, waterfront plan
The Guardian
The Charlottetown Area Development Corporation and its funding partners are looking for a creative team to paint a new, visionary picture of the Charlottetown waterfront and the eastern entrance to the city.
Requests for proposals went out Tuesday for a master plan for the gateway access to the eastern end of the City. This is the third phase of the waterfront development plans first drawn up in 1970.
The Eastern Gateway consists of the area bounded by the Bypass Highway, Exhibition Drive, Kensington Road, Kent Street, Weymouth Street, and Grafton Street to the Hillsborough Bridge extending on the east side of Grafton to the Maritime Electric Property and the Friendly Pharmacy Development.
The area would include; the redevelopment by Holland College of the Prince of Wales campus; Glendenning Residence; the Joe Ghiz Park; the vacant Imperial Oil Lands; the D.P. Murphy properties; the Provincial Public Works garage; the EMCO Ltd. Sumner property; The Cavendish Farms fertilizer facility; the existing Civic Centre; the Charlottetown Driving Park; Red Shores Casino at the CDP and the residential space along the south side of Kensington Road and the west side of Grafton Street.
The goal of this planning exercise is to create an overall master plan for the gateway area which will serve the City of Charlottetown and its partners for the next two decades. This time frame will allow short, medium and long-term strategies.
"This is a unique opportunity to lay the groundwork for the development of this area for the next 15-20 years," CADC General Manager Ron Waite said.
"It has the potential to draw together existing development and consolidate in a dramatic way what the city is at its eastern end. These large chunks of land create some unique opportunities to do something really special. This part of the City is quite industrial today -- but with a longer-term view, there are some very interesting possibilities."
Waite anticipates there will be eight to 10 proposals entered in the two-envelope system.
"We're not putting a price or a budget in it, but will await private sector suggestions for the study," he said.
Ken DesRoches, a Charlottetown consultant contracted by CADC to help manage the project, recognizes this is a difficult assignment. Although these areas are rich in development opportunities, there are challenges with several of the pieces of land -- such as environmental impacts and conflicting land uses -- that need to be addressed.
"Some existing users are not going to change but we'll be looking for ways to mitigate their presence," DesRoches said.
"It's complex, there are a lot of different aspects to it. It's going to take a lot of good planning.
"Development is going to happen, whether we plan it or not, we want to make sure it happens in the best interest of the citizens of the community."
Once consultants are selected there will be extensive consultations with stakeholders before the successful bidders are tasked to bring their concepts forward for public consideration.
"We want creative solutions that reflect an appropriate vision for the City. It needs to be more than a 50,000-foot view of what the City might look like. It's got to have some clear strategies attached to it," he said.
"It will take a comprehensive team of people to do this. There are a million questions -- my job is not to have the answers, but to ask the right questions."
Charlottetown CAO Roy Main said the right kind of investment and planning will make the redeveloped Eastern gateway and waterfront a stronger draw for tourists and a source of great pride for residents.
"This is the first step in a very important planning period for this City. Cities lucky enough to have a waterfront as beautiful as Charlottetown's know strategically and creatively planned development is essential. This area is an important economic, environmental and social focal point and we want to make sure this is done right."
Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee looks forward to seeing the proposals.
"Today is a very important first step in recreating one of our treasures, our historic waterfront and the eastern gateway to the city," he said.
"We'll be looking for public input into whatever proposals we choose and will work hard to make sure the vision we all decide on comes to fruition."
The redevelopment will be funded by all three levels of government. The master plan is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2011.
Hopefully this can bring some new businesses or places to live to that area, and move the industrial buildings to the business parks not too far away. I look forward to 1 year, 8 days from now!
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