At the June public meeting of council I went on at length — a bit of an incoherent rant really — about Victoria Park. It is a subject that I regret not having pursued more agressively throughout my term, so when Parks & Rec announced yet another large amount of money to be spent on upgrades to the park I had to say something. I was very pleased to receive the support of the mayor, and then again to see the supportive editorial in the Guardian.
Victoria Park is a huge asset to our city, but it has a lot of unrealized potential. Great city’s have great parks and I can easily imagine Victoria Park in the same league as some of the more famous municipal parks. It’s just not quite there yet.
The park is almost 40 acres, but we all know there is a lot of pressure on the park with more and more amenities being added over the decades, one at a time, without much regard for the overall concept. The city wouldn’t approve a subdivision of that size without a detailed plan to guide the use of the land.
What’s needed is a vision; a comprehensive master plan developed with public consultation, to guide the long-term development and management of the park. The plan should include recommendations for phased, short-term design changes that will help accommodate all the diverse — and sometimes incompatible — uses of the park to ultimately make it more enjoyable for everyone.
I’ve watched over the years as other municipalities have undergone similar exercises for their greenspace and parks. I often use the Point Pleasant Park Comprehensive Plan as an example, but there are many others, several in the Atlantic region alone.
The Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island hired a consultant, o2 Design + Planning, to create a vision for the Experimental Farm. The plan was design-oriented and really quite impressive. The City would certainly need to consult professional landscape architects too, but public consultation is paramount. I have many ideas myself. I would ask some of the following:
- Is it really necessary to allow cars to drive into the center of the park? I say no. The old driveway, which extends from the cannons to the tennis courts should be narrowed and reserved for pedestrian and cyclists only. A small stretch of the driveway was converted to a nice pathway, but users are forced into traffic at one end, and a parking lot at the other. Parking for the tennis courts could be accommodated near the dairy bar. The parking off Brighton Road should also be moved. Separate cars and people.
- Do we need to close a lane of the park roadway for cyclists? It’s wonderful, but there is room for a dedicated year-round bike lane. My detailed plan upon request.
- Must there be a half kilometer of chain link fence along the west perimeter of the park? I say no. Gary Schneider’s excellent forest management plan (which is being ably implemented in many ways) suggested a hedge instead, if a barrier is necessary at all.
- Was the restoration of Fort Edward Battery a good thing? I think not. The old battery design — run down as it had become — was one of the most popular destinations in the park; a vantage point where you could stroll atop the berm and enjoy the incredible view. Now it is fenced off, unwelcoming, and simply obstructs the view. Make this a focal point again.
I could go on… and on. But finally, I will just say this; I think the park deserves a significant monument to the park’s namesake, Queen Victoria, such as a statue with surrounding public space. In 2014 we’ll be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference in the Birthplace of Confederation so, notwithstanding all the attention the Founding Fathers will get, it would be a perfect opportunity to honour the Queen who is known as the Mother of Confederation.
Good post. Hope this happens.
I found the work done around the Battery particularly ridiculous. Take a small piece of the Park that was always heavily used (I remember the well-worn bike paths from when I was a kid) and put an ugly fence around it. Who did it and how did they get away with it?
I believe it was a military historical society that spearheaded the restoration. There was a plan, apparently abandoned, for military reenactments to take place there. A webcam was installed across the street with the intention of streaming the reenactments but it has never been functional to my knowledge.
Might see some other interesting footage from a webcam there. =)
Why does Charlottetown not have a planning department? They could be in charge of planning parks, waterfront landscapes, the revitalization of industrial areas. By continuing to hire various professional firms, each in charge of one project, an overall city cohesion is impossible to attain.
Charlottetown HAS a planning department. There is a manager (who is a planner), two planning officers, a planning tech, admin assistant, building inspector, and a Director overseeing it all. They are extremely busy people. But they spend a disproportionate amount of time processing building permits, applications for rezonings, variances, etc. This is administrative stuff, and very little time is left over for actual planning.
The Planning Committee (of which I am a member) submitted a budget to council that included dollars for an additional planning officer. It was nixed.
However, consultants will always be required for special projects, both for the short-term human resource requirement, and for their specialized expertise in a particular field (e.g. the City doesn’t need a full-time landscape architect).
I should also note, Charlottetown has what is considered a fairly modern and progressive Official Plan and the Zoning & Development Bylaw is being constantly reviewed and updated, as it should be, to reflect modern planning principles.
Am I off my rocker? Does the city not have a plan for all parks and green spaces, including Victoria Park? I distinctly remember going to a meeting where an (I thought) excellent plan was revealed – one that would remove some of the pressure on Victoria Park to be all things to all people, among other things.
I think the park has become a big mish-mash and less a, well, park – in part because the city ignored that excellent plan and allowed more tennis courts to be built.
I agree there has to be a plan and I think it should have some teeth so that it isn’t subsequently ignored.
Ann,
Parks & Recreation commissioned a Parks Master Plan to help guide the management of all their parks resources. It made only a couple of general recommendations about Victoria Park. A draft recommendation to relocate one or more of the ball fields to a central ball facility was watered down in the final report, if I remember correctly. As a member of heritage board you’ll recall that the “media tower” (or whatever it’s called) that was built at Memorial Field for the Canada Games was not brought to the board for approval. We were told it could possibly be removed after games were complete. I think that would be advisable since I haven’t seen it used since the games.
But the general sense I had from the report (at least the version that was presented to the public) was less is more for Victoria Park. And I think that’s good guiding principle. The “media tower” and the extra tennis courts are great examples of talking out of both sides of one’s mouth, park wise. I myself would favour the removal of EVERYTHING from the park, except possibly the pool. No roads, no bikes. Let it become more natural and let our intrusion on it be minimal and quiet. But I realize this isn’t going to happen.
Charlottetown’s challenges with Victoria Park cannot be solved by having geographers and landscape architects alone perform studies such as the Master Plan of 2007. The park also needs input from a historic preservation consultant. The problem with that green space is that it suffers from an identity crisis – it doesn’t know whether it is an 1812 military historic site, a Victorian era greensward or a modern day recreation facility. There are other parks in the region facing the same challenges. I know this because I’m currently working on a new management plan for one of them and I cannot look at one without studying them all. Some parks have let new amenities creep in one by one just like Charlottetown’s Victoria Park, others have totally closed the door to new developments and still others have had push and pull contests. At the end of the day, the answer is very simple. We have become programmed to believe that the word park is synonymous with recreation space. It is not. We have filled up our lives with things to do, so we try to fill up our parks with things to do when the reality is that Victorian era parks like Victoria Park (1873) were set aside chiefly for the purpose of refuge from the busyness of life and for doing nothing at all! In my opinion we need that more today than we did in 1873. Perhaps it is too late to preserve all of the Victorian elements of Victoria Park but it is not too late restore some of them. Most of the encroaching amenities in Victoria Park should be relocated.
Joe Ballard, historic preservation consultant with Vineberg & Fulton Ltd.
Thanks for your comment Joe. Very interesting.
Rob,
I’m not sure if this is relevant to the Victoria Park master plan thread, but could you please give an update on the recent suggestion made by (someone?)to take up part of the park in order to expand the provincial government parking lot behind the Shaw Building? It’s hard to believe that someone could make such a regressive suggestion. I’d love to see park land around those buildings reclaimed, a bank of bicycle racks, and a campaign to encourage provincial employees to use public transit. Thanks.
Elizabeth,
I’ve heard nothing new about this plan. Our suggestion to inquiries from the province has been to reduce demand for parking, add controls to provincial parking lot, etc. Free parking does not exactly encourage a scarcity of parkers. My understanding is that this plan was advanced by bureaucrats and now that provincial politicians are aware I don’t imagine it is likely to proceed any further. Even if it got to the point of a public meeting, which is required to rezone a property, the opposition would be so fierce it couldn’t possibly get approval, in my opinion. I think it is a terrible idea, and I’ve heard from many people who agree with me since the news story was aired. I’ll certainly let you know if the province continues to pursue this idea.
Rob,
Thanks for the update, and I’d appreciate hearing if the province plans to pursue the idea. I agree, it’s a terrible plan. When I first heard about it, I almost thought it was a joke.
I wasn’t aware that parking in this lot is free, which must explain why it’s always overflowing. It’s an environmental and visual blight on the area. Anything that the City could do to reduce its impact would certainly have my support. Thanks.