Regina City Council has decided to keep the site of the Regent Par 3 as a recreational property.
City administration recommended that council convert it to a senior living property with some recreation facilities, but after a strong push from the public, council decided to keep it fully recreational.
Mayor Michael Fougere said this project has been a long time coming.
“It’s been about ten years of discussion about what we’re going to do with this space, and the public rightly deserves to have some public amenities and a park space, to update it and make it the centre of activity, the hub of activity,” Fougere said. “I think we made the right decision.”
Councillor Sharron Bryce said the community’s recommendations made a big difference.
“Going to open houses, staying involved in this, I think that’s a great thing for the community and I think it just shows that sometimes things do take a lot of time, but if you get all the information from those who are willing to come forward and actually talk,” Bryce said. “Even things got added (Monday) night that weren’t on administration’s original plan.”
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Some residents of Regina, including many from the coronation park neighbourhood, came to council to voice their concerns with the hopes that the recommendations would not be followed through with.
Nicole Bryksa was one of those delegates, and she said the new park will have a great impact on the community.
“It’s going to change everybody’s lifestyle; the way we live each day,” Bryksa said. “We will be able to get home from work, and just head to the park, relax a little bit, enjoy nature, enjoy our families. It’s a big deal and it means that people will be able to come across from north central as well and utilize this space as well that we’ve all been closed off to.”
Connie Buchan from the off leash dog park user group said she was optimistic heading into the meeting.
“We’d gotten some favourable comments and responses through our other presentations, and so I was feeling fairly confident,” Buchan said. “I did not really think that they were going to go for total green space, I thought they would go with the option that administration had recommended, and put housing on there, and I’m so glad to see that they haven’t.”
At least one dog park will be located in the new site, along with disc golf, green space and a toboggan hill.
