Council approves downtown urban park design

Council approves downtown urban park design  

Downtown parking solutions to be integrated in plan

NEWMARKET, Ontario, January 13, 2010 - At Monday night's Special Council Meeting, Newmarket Town Council approved the final conceptual design for the new Community Urban Space Project (CUSP) to bring a new urban park to the Newmarket Downtown core.

"The Town is very excited about this project, says Mayor Tony Van Bynen. This park provides a strategic link that connects our entire trail system from north to south, and once completed this community space will be a unique landmark, bringing people together from all areas to celebrate community events and experience everything our downtown business has to offer."

After an in-depth, collaborative public process, which included dozens of stakeholder interviews, several public information sessions, and special meetings to address parking concerns, the final design was approved and will now go to public tender for construction. Work on the park is expected to commence this spring and will be completed by March 31, 2011.

The conceptual design of the park includes a key link in the trail system that connects the Tom Taylor Trail with Fairy Lake Park, creating a continuous trail system from the north to the south end of town. The design also contains plans to renovate the Community Centre, construct an outdoor winter ice skating facility which will convert into a summer water feature, and build an outdoor performance area that will host numerous public events year-round.

From the onset of this project, the Town of Newmarket and landscape architecture firm Janet Rosenberg + Associates (JRA) understood how important parking was to the downtown area and had commissioned parking and traffic experts, BA Group, to meet with key stakeholders and study parking in the CUSP lands and surrounding downtown area.

Newmarket Council and stakeholders worked with designers to find solutions that would see 90 per cent of the current parking spaces kept within the CUSP lands, without compromising the integrity of the park design. Council remains committed to locating the additional parking spaces within the downtown core by the time the park is completed, to ensure there is no loss of parking and to review future parking needs for the downtown area.

"We are extremely pleased that we were able to secure Provincial and Federal stimulus funding to build this outstanding new urban park for the residents of the Town of Newmarket," says Regional Councillor John Taylor. "At the end of the day we will be transforming this area into a vibrant community space where people can meet, play, and relax. This urban park will be a cultural, recreational, and community asset for generations of residents."

Working collaboratively with the provincial and federal governments, the Town of Newmarket has made this initiative possible through the Building Canada Fund, an infrastructure program for strengthening the economy.

For more information on the community urban space project, visit www.newmarket.ca.

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Media contact:
Wanda Bennett, Corporate Communications Manager
Tel: 905-953-5300, ext. 2041 ? E-mail: wbennett@newmarket.ca