Infrastructure upgrades are planned on St. George Street, to repair aging water and sewer pipes.
City of Moncton Active Transportation Coordinator Leslie Tse says they’re looking for public input to consider a future feel for the street.
“We’re asking for the public to give a big vision for the street. We have a great opportunity here to create something new and improved with the planned reconstruction of the street that’s coming up in the next few years. So we really want the big ideas of what the city of Moncton sees itself being like in the future. What can we see here? What do we want this part of Moncton to feel like, to be like? How do we want to interact with it?”
She says they’re hoping to direct the future landscape, streetscape and urban form through their regulatory guidelines and zoning. With construction planned, they can look at a future design and what the street should look like after it has been torn up and put back together.
“We have an interest in creating a more pedestrian-friendly, more cycling-friendly city with benefits for the environment, for social and community building, and things like that. There’s a real interest to revitalize our downtown,” Tse adds.
The St. George Improvement Plan affects the section of St. George Street from Vaughn Harvey to King Street. The area to the west towards Centennial Park is known as St. George Boulevard.
Public engagement sessions were held in person before Christmas, and an online survey is currently available until February 17. Members of the community are encouraged to fill it out before then.
“This is our first formative engagement round. So we’re asking for the big ideas. We want to know what people like about St. George, and what they feel could be improved. There’s an online map portion on the project website where they can drop pins to specific locations, to talk about specific things, such as if they would like to see a change at an intersection, or they find they really like a certain destination. They are welcome to put those comments in as well,” Tse stated.
Once all of the feedback and comments are gathered, consultants will use those to develop three concepts for what can be done with the street. Tse says that could include putting in bike lanes, improving sidewalks, making the intersections safer, changing the format of the intersections, or even changing traffic patterns.
“We’re trying to base our vision on the feedback we get from the community. From there, once we have these new concepts, we will come back and ask the public again for their feedback on what has been presented to us,” Tse added.
That’s expected to happen in late summer or early fall.
The current survey is available until February 17 through Let’s Chat Moncton.
