City looks ahead to future of Old Strathcona

The city's urban planning committee heard from more than two-dozen people on Tuesday about the long-term vision for the Old Strathcona neighbourhood.

The plan outlines a vision for the publicly-owned land in the neighbourhood.

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While it has no funding attached, it's intended to guide decision making for the area.

One of the proposed designs would transform a surface parking lot across from the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market.

It would be part of a larger park that would extend north to Saskatchewan Drive.

Several area business owners told councillors that one less parking lot would not make any difference to their shops.

Coun. Michael Janz says the city has to be mindful of the arts community, which is still recovering from the pandemic.

"As we see more development in the area, we're going to need more play spaces for people to mix and mingle," he told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday. "It's a really exciting conversation. There is consternation from some folks. The pandemic has been really tough on the arts community. They are really fragile right now, they don't want to see anything that could immediately affect today's attendees and the good news is it's a long term plan, it won't."

Janz says the city will look at funding the plan when it has more fiscal flexibility.