Proposed Large Facilities

My view on the new library is that this project should not take place in our current financial situation with diminished income and uncertain future burdens.

I am frustrated that the City is returning to a pattern of building standalone structures for each entity instead of looking to combine and save on the economy of scale with multiple use facilities. It also sounds like this new library is being developed partially as a statement on reconciliation and I would ask the question if this means the library will also be some form of museum or is there some other funding stream which is covering this?

Having the library so far removed from the largest daily group of office workers will restrict access for these people.

To me, the most inefficient building in Saskatoon is City Hall itself. If grand projects were the order of the day (and right now they are not), I would propose that an improved joint use structure be negotiated and attached to the Sturdy Stone Center. Construct a new library where Mulberry’s Restaurant is located, then demolish the old library structure and infill with a new City Hall. Then sell the existing City Hall location to one or more developers for a larger scale infill development. Some people think that City Hall is the center of activity for the downtown core, but I see it more like a boat anchor to good development and a lively community. Either the City Hall becomes integrated within a greater combination of uses, or it gets out of the way so more vibrant development can move in behind. The City Hall is nothing more than a daily office environment. It is not a destination for anyone except those completing municipal duties. This large void in the middle of our central business district does not encourage development, but hinders it.

I propose permanently closing 23rd Street to create a pedestrian walking space and buffer. The cenotaph would need to be relocated to the walking mall / park where 23rd Street is now but this has moved before from 2nd Avenue so this should not be an issue.

As for a new large arena, I worked on the mixed-use arena project built in Cranbrook, BC for the WHL Kootenay Ice Hockey team home, so I have a little experience with this first hand. In our case, we should not try to nail down an arena without dealing with traffic issues first (including rail issues). But in this recent world order framed by the pandemic, I do not believe we should be spending large sums of money to build redundant facilities which would require social distancing issues to not exist. We should carefully plan but not with endless studies with no real final goal other than generating lots of paper and fees.