Any one of the recommendations in the final report produced by the St. Albert Trail committee is the most important, depending on the reason you use the Trail, the chair said.
While Chris Creran said the final report has yet to be shared with the businesses on the Trail, he said everyone should be able to recognize the importance of one or more of the recommendations.
“I think it’s really dependent on the user of the Trail,” Creran said. “If you’re a pedestrian, one of the primary recommendations you’d like to see is the contiguous sidewalks from north to south. There’s not a consistency of presence and we just heard a lot about having access problems.”
Creran and other committee members presented city council with the report on Monday. Its final 16 recommendations are quite broad, tackling permanent signs, posting addresses, esthetics, transportation and sidewalks.
Council accepted the report and has asked staff to come back Sept. 3 with a plan on what action it will take with respect to each recommendation. Afterwards the mayor will communicate those plans to the businesses along the Trail.
Signs, both Creran and committee member and business owner John Engel agree, are particularly important to clean up the otherwise cluttered look of the Trail.
“The signage along St. Albert Trail is an eyesore for many citizens yet vital for many stakeholders,” said Engel, who owns Mission Fun & Games. “Strike a balance between relatively appealing signage all along the Trail and the business needs is a major challenge for any thriving city, and we are no exception.”
Jillian Creech, general manager of St. Albert Centre, who also sat on the committee, said portable signs don’t need to be completely eliminated but the esthetic standards need to be improved.
“The signs don’t need to be removed altogether. My main message to the signage subcommittee was they need to be more esthetically pleasing and the standards need to be kept up,” Creech said.
Engel is responsible for one particular recommendation, the Trailblazers, which is a group of Trail businesses that talk via e-mail about problems and challenges along the Trail’s breadth. Engel said he has approached 70 businesses and 12 have signed up.
Engel said he will provide a PDF of the committee’s final report to any Trailblazer that asks for it.
“This long-term initiative is very important to better connect stakeholders,” Engel said. “And improve business relations along the Trail, address safety problems and Trail eyesores, prepare for the anticipated St. Albert LRT line and cultivate business along the Trail.”
The committee was formed in January 2012 to explore a laundry list of ways the Trail could be improved. It held one public open house last year to discuss ideas with other businesses and residents. It also conducted an online survey with affected businesses.
Mayor Nolan Crouse has said some of the recommendations, such as building a sidewalk the entire length of the Trail on both sides, could take years.
Creran acknowledges the recommendations are quite broad and require some additional work, but that is left in the city’s hands.
“These are really kind of broad recommendations,” Creran said. “That was done intentionally because the committee doesn’t have the expertise. We have bits and parts, but not enough to go out there and do it.”
The report is available at http://www.stalbert.ca/trail-improvement.
