It was a full house last evening in the Basinview Drive Community School cafeteria during the Bedford Waterfront Design Study Presentation.
Ekistics, a consulting firm engaged by the Municipality and Waterfront Development Corporation, presented the final study of the Bedford Waterfront Design.
The presentation was followed by an opportunity for public questions and comments.
The study culminates from the ideas provided to date (visit halifax.ca) to a steering committee, comprised of community representatives and property owners within the study area.
Over 200 people were present at the meeting last night.
Doug Kolmer, Chair of the Bedford Waterfront Vision Implementation Committee, presented the audience “with a lot of food for thought.”
Rob LeBlanc, with Ekistics Planning & Design, presented the audience with the plan and emphasized that “the waterfront will be the heart and soul of Bedford.”
Emphasis is placed on maintaining a green community by amalgamating all the best ideas from all the cities in the world and applying them to Bedford.
There are five main components to the Waterfront Design Study.
The Landing Component would allow for a commercial rail line, a ferry terminal housing two ferries, a bus terminal and a central library.
Parking would be available both underground and on street level, with sidewalks on both sides of the street.
With an active waterfront featuring restaurants, book shops and coffee shops (to name a few) there would inevitably be a second access road.
The Island Component of the project would actually be a peninsula with marinas on both sides.
The roads leading onto the island would feel like bridges.
Mix-use buildings and a year-round event plaza would give this area a vibrancy 12 months of the year.
One suggestion was a water area which would be frozen for winter recreation.
Once again there would be underground and street parking.
The island would also allow for a canal option.
The Bedford Highway Component strongly discourages strip-style development. Throughout the presentation the need to move away from strip malls towards a village centre was emphasized.
A gateway to the waterfront with key buildings would allow access to this highly desirable area.
The Sobeys Village and Moirs Pond Component would allow pedestrians access around Moirs Pond and an underpass under the railway would provide access to the waterfront.
It would be natural to see Sobeys flipped over to where the mall is. A parking lot or other public area would replace the building.
The Shore Drive Component would connect Shore Drive to the rest of the waterfront.
The presentation concluded with a visual tour of what the Bedford Waterfront would look like in 25 years – a progressive, bustling, world-class waterfront.
A recording of yesterday evening’s presentation and a copy of the consultant’s report will be available on the Municipality’s website at www.halifax.ca.
Please provide any feedback to the study by Wednesday, July 7 via email to morganp@halifax.ca.
For further information or to be placed on a notification list of further meetings, please contact:
Paul Morgan, Planner
HRM Regional & Community Planning
Phone: 490-4482
Fax: Fax: 490-3976
Email: morganp@halifax.ca
or
Terry Drisdelle, Project Manger
Waterfront Development Corporation
Phone: 422-5115, ext. 109
Email: drisdelle@wdcl.ca