Councillors endorse Saskatoon downtown planning roadmap

Saskatoon city councillors put their support behind a planning document that is expected to guide the next decade of development for the downtown core at its governance and priorities committee Wednesday.

The City Centre and District Plan is replacing a 2013 document which administration says is needed in order to update the strategy following the detailed efforts and planning of the new downtown event and entertainment district.

"A key feature of the plan is the integration of the downtown events and entertainment district into the broader city centre planning framework," Ian Williamson, a senior project planner with the city, said.

"This plan reflects the progress made over the past decade while addressing the need for a modern approach driven by some of the transformation projects outlined in the plan."

The new plan for downtown is meant to link the three eventual anchors of Saskatoon's downtown -- the arena, the convention centre, and the new public library -- with a list of other amenities and projects.

Councillors learned of a potential national urban park, a new outdoor festival site, and the redevelopment of Idylwyld Drive as key projects over the next 10 years.

The national urban is currently being discussed with Parks Canada and the Meewasin Valley Authority along a stretch of the riverbank.

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The outdoor permanent festival site is being proposed to be built at Friendship Park, and the Imagine Idylwyld project is a series of road changes which the city hopes will make it easier for people to get around between neighbourhoods and downtown.

"People want to discover, they really don't want to explore," Ward 6 Coun. Cynthia Block said. "And what does that mean? It's the interconnection of everything."

A large portion of Wednesday's discussion was the effort of getting more people to live downtown as a key path to downtown development.

The city is targeting 200 housing units being built per year downtown with 7,500 people making downtown home by 2035. Administration would also work to develop a variety of green spaces and gathering spaces to accommodate and encourage growth in specific areas.

"Probably the boldest move and the most effective move for downtown is people, more people -- which has great spinoff effects," Williamson said.

Considering what has been built and how active downtown is compared to 10 years ago, Clark and other councillors aren't shy about what the next 10 years could look like.

"I want to invite or call or challenge the next council and administration to be bold and think about what will it take," Clark said. "Now we've got these ideas and we've got these concepts to get this entire plan implemented."

Administration will host an open house next week at The Studio at Midtown Mall. Council will then debate the plan one more time before final approval at council's regular business meeting at the end of the month.

"All of those pieces make me very bullish on the future of Saskatoon and our downtown. And we're really growing up as a city," Block said.