Mike Skene, from the Boulevard Transportation Group was at a special meeting of Village of Burns Lake council recently to provide a brief update on the village's downtown revitalization plans.
The update was focussed on phase one, which centres around the Hwy. 16 corridor from Centre St. to Fifth Ave.
Skene presented a number of updated design renderings to council showing sections of the phase one plans.
"There will be significant upgrades [along Hwy. 16] with landscaping as well as added crosswalks and curb bulbs," he said.
At each curb intersection in the downtown core there will also be new concrete wheelchair ramps, rather than the current squared off curb edging requiring pedestrian traffic to step up onto the sidewalk. "This will make the downtown core more accessible," he said.
While there is trees depicted in curb bulbs and medians throughout the renderings, Skene said there may not be an option to put all of the proposed trees in. "We may be looking at trees or different landscaping features like banner poles or bench seats."
The original plans for the downtown core had started at Fourth Ave. however due to requests from the village's downtown core revitalization committee Skene said the plans had been reworked to extend to Fifth Ave. "It's a major change [to the plans] but in the grand scheme of things it is quite minor," he said.
The committee consists of 10 members, most of whom own or operate a business in the downtown core.
Skene recently joined committee members, an electrical engineer, two civil designers and a landscaping architect and 'walked' the project area to get a better idea of the plans.
"There is a number of broken sidewalks and the ministry said they were happy to take some of the sidewalk repairs on."
There is a crosswalk planned for Hwy. 16, near Third Ave. as well as a left hand turning lane.
There will also be a crosswalk near the New Leaf Cafe crossing Hwy. 16.
Skene also discussed the proposed roundabout, which is planned for phase three of the downtown upgrades and won't be completed this year.
"There was a big [community] issue with the roundabout, but I have heard from the committee that there is more community acceptance with it now ... the other issue was with the Burns Lake Fire and Rescue department's concerns, but this has also been addressed with the planned Third Ave. fire signal light.
Currently, when the fire department is called out they either travel along Government St. or Gillgan Ave. because of difficulties turning from Third Ave. onto Hwy. 16 due to busy highway traffic.
"The fire signal light will flash amber all the time. When a fire is called the fire department will activate the light from the fire station and stop traffic. The amber flashing light will then turn solid amber and then red, requiring all highway traffic to stop so that the fire crew can turn East or West as they see fit. This light will accommodate the fire department and make their operations more efficient."
Phase one also includes creating a larger median area where Centre St. connects with Hwy. 16. "It will be a great improvement to an undesirable intersection," Skene said.
Because of the larger median, Skene said they are currently in the process of negotiating some land from the owners of Burns Lake Eye Care to reclaim some of the land in order to reconfigure the intersection.
On the Home Hardware side of the intersection there will be a significant landscaped area with trees planted and a landscaped median added to Hwy. 16.
According to Skene, there is also some drainage issues with Centre Street that need to be solved, possibly by putting in a bioswale [landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water] or a rain garden. [A rain garden is a planted depression that allows rainwater runoff]
Skene also said that he is still in discussions with the committee about parking at the post office area and has not yet decided if the parking stalls will be angle or parallel. "We still have plenty of time for this discussion as this is a phase two or three project and we are concentrating on phase one at the moment."
There will be changes to the Hwy. 16 side of the intersection between the New Leaf Cafe and the disused Husky site this year.
According to Stephanie Beerling, village director of corporate services said, "A sidewalk will be installed across this intersection which will block vehicle traffic. Traffic will not be able to access Hwy. 16 from Government St. or vice versa," she added.
Boulevard Transportation Group were chosen to complete the downtown design plans after a request for proposal for work was issued in June 2009.
"Boulevard Transportation was selected based on their ability to complete the required components of the request for proposal," Beerling added.