Many Saskatchewan Drive businesses welcome revitalization plan

On Wednesday, Regina city council will consider a plan to renovate and revitalize the Saskatchewan Drive corridor from McTavish Street all the way to Winnipeg Street.

The multi-year plan includes adding lanes in some areas, adding centre medians, widening sidewalks, adding green space and overall making things more pedestrian-friendly.

Some of the biggest changes in the plan will take place west of Albert Street, where the current plan calls for six lanes of traffic.

Chad Mario and Regina Auto Body are just on the edge of that area, on the corner of Angus Street and Saskatchewan Drive. Mario said the project is something he’s looking forward to.

“I just think it’s kind of overdue to update what’s going on here on Saskatchewan Drive. (It) definitely needs widening and more pedestrian access between downtown and the stadium there, for sure,” he said.

He thinks the changes will particularly help on Saskatchewan Roughriders game days.

“If you ever watch the people trying to go to and from the stadium there, people are walking either in the middle of the street or there’s only one narrow sidewalk for everybody to use,” said Mario.

A little further west, Rick O’Dow at Rick’s Custom Cabinets and Renovations also likes the plan.

“It looks like something that we’ve been waiting for a long time, getting wider streets and wider sidewalks, and the green space I really like,” said O’Dow. “The view from looking at a big empty space across the street here would be improved, for sure.”

However, the plan also calls for adding six new traffic lights on the stretch, three between Elphinstone Street and Albert Street alone – something O’Dow doesn’t much care for.

The plan is still going through some approval stages and work isn’t expected to begin until next year, but it appears the city has been getting a jump on things.

Anderson Auto Sales is on the north side of Saskatchewan Drive at the corner of Albert Street. Manager Rod Dorn says the city has been looking to buy his property and has already scooped up others on the north side of the road – the plan calls for wider and more lanes and green space, but the city is going to need more area to do that.

“They’re going to expropriate our property. They want to buy it now, lease it back to us for the next three years and then they’re going to expand the street,” explained Dorn.

“The body shop, the mechanic shop, the boys will move somewhere else in the city and then the car lot, we’ll end up probably just shutting it down.”

There are only a few other businesses on that side of the street that will have to move if the city gets its way.

‘Grand Avenue’

According to the report coming before city council on Wednesday, the plan for that three-kilometre stretch of Saskatchewan Drive is to turn it into a “grand avenue” to act as a gateway into the downtown.

“The Plan considers the future of Saskatchewan Drive and how it can evolve over the next 30 years through a variety of public and private sector developments and initiatives,” reads the report.

There are a series of upgrades the city needs to do to some of the infrastructure that’s underneath Saskatchewan Drive, so the plan has been created to improve things above ground at the same time.

Currently, Saskatchewan Drive is primarily a space for vehicles, with inconsistent sidewalks in the west end and no bike lanes. But among the objectives of the new plan is to make Saskatchewan Drive an active travel route, which means pedestrians, bicycles, transit and vehicles.

The plan puts an emphasis on wider, multi-use sidewalks, public art, and creating gateways into the downtown.

The plan includes cross-sections of the three different areas of road, proposing centre medians, large sidewalks and trees and greenery on both sides of the road regardless of the area.

The area that’s furthest east is proposed to have four lanes of traffic, like it does currently. The downtown portion, stretching from Broad to Albert, would have five lanes of traffic – two westbound and three eastbound. And the portion that’s furthest west would have six lanes of traffic.

The plan also proposes several restrictions when it comes to new buildings, businesses, and uses on the road, including no more vehicle-oriented businesses like gas stations, auto or tire shops, or drive-through businesses.

The plan and corresponding changes to the community plan are coming for approval to city council on Wednesday. Construction on the project wouldn’t be expected to start until next year.

Click on photos to enlarge.