The Woodgrove Area Plan was back before council this week, with results from initial public engagement now informing discussion of future growth scenarios for the area.
The area plan is being created as a playbook to develop a secondary urban hub as identified in the Nanaimo ReImagined city plan. The City of Nanaimo is moving through three phases of information-gathering through research and public feedback to plan an urban centre with a mix of commercial, residential, recreation and cultural components and services that residents could access on foot or by bicycle.
Kasia Biegun, city planner, opened her report at a city council meeting Monday, June 16, by outlining public survey results from nearly 1,300 participants.
“We had strong support for more density, a mix of affordable housing types and building forms, which reinforces what we heard for city plan Nanaimo ReImagined,” she said. “As for transportation, we heard calls for pedestrian safety, better cycling infrastructure, more frequent transit solutions as well as solutions for traffic congestion.”
Respondents also asked for more parks and green spaces, cultural and recreational facilities such as a swimming pool and ice arena, enhanced public amenities, and expressed support for local businesses.
Phase 2 planning looks toward growth scenarios 30 years into the future and projects ways in which residential and commercial growth might impact transportation, infrastructure and access to daily needs as Woodgrove urban centre transforms into a "complete community." The scenarios factor in three levels of population growth, housing development and retail space expansion.
Scenario 1 involves no changes to transportation and infrastructure that aren’t already planned for the area.
Scenario 2 calls for moving the Woodgrove transit exchange to a more central location, building a new recreation and culture facility and an elementary school, creating a new ring road and cycling and pedestrian infrastructure within 800 metres of the new transit exchange, and giving thought to parks and open spaces. The need for a new elementary school arose from an assessment by Nanaimo-Ladysmith Public Schools.
Scenario 3 includes everything in Scenario 2, plus more pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, new roads and a multi-use path through the Woodgrove Centre mall property. Scenario 3’s road additions would provide the greatest improvement to public transit access, but city population growth would continue contributing congestion at key intersections unless greater use of alternative transportation is realized.
The potential "ring road" around the Woodgrove urban centre would connect Calinda Street to Aulds Road by passing through both the Costco and Woodgrove Centre properties as well as a new intersection along the old Island Highway. Road realignment including pedestrian and cycling infrastructure improvements along the highway would require an agreement with the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, which has jurisdiction over the section of highway.
All three scenarios will require upgrading sewer, water, stormwater, electrical and natural gas infrastructure.
The Woodgrove Area Plan web page has now been updated with a new public engagement survey.
“That survey provides the public with a high-level overview of the findings and then seeks feedback on those findings and we’re hoping to use that information to inform Phase 3, which will be looking at what policies, actions, perhaps design guidelines, that make this area unique [and] should be included in the Woodgrove Area Plan to achieve that complete community that the community wants to see,” Beigun said.
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong said she and other people she knew did the survey, but found it confusing.
“We weren’t sure what you were looking for or what you were asking for, because it sounds like, ‘just give me a general comment,’ and I found it very difficult to follow all the different charts and stuff,” Armstrong said.
Beigun said she agreed, but noted that the survey was created with a consultant and the “very complex topic” made survey development challenging.
“There was quite a bit of analysis that went into it. We tried our best to make the results as high-level as possible with graphics using maps, but it’s something we could look at,” she said. “The survey is currently open and we’re trying to have it closed before the summer break.”
To lean more about the Woodgrove Area Plan and provide feedback, visit www.getinvolvednanaimo.ca/woodgrove.
