VIDEO: Member of family behind Regina conservation park concerned about road proposal

A member of the McKell family, who worked with Ducks Unlimited to protect a portion of the family’s farmland from urban development, hopes the City of Regina changes its mind about a proposed road extension.

The city is surveying the public this month on the proposed link-up of Prince of Wales Drive and Wascana Parkway in southeast Regina.

Read more:

• Advocates say proposed Regina road extension threatens environmentally sensitive area
• Regina Ward 4 councillor says Prince of Wales extension needed to address SE traffic woes
• Ducks Unlimited manager concerned about park he helped build as Regina studies road extension

But Doug McKell says the plan doesn’t make sense, and said he has tried to express that point of view to the city in meetings.

“They seem to be bent on pushing this Prince of Wales Drive across the conservation area and connecting it to a place where it’s just going to be another problem,” he said.

McKell said he believes the Regina Bypass makes the extension unnecessary, adding it was first planned at a time when the bypass was being proposed for a more northern route along the grid road known as Old 16 Highway.

He said linking Prince of Wales to Wascana Parkway will just create another bottleneck, arguing instead in favour of widening Arcola Avenue or adding a new connection to the bypass.

Park arose from concerns about urban encroachment

McKell said his family created the 171-acre McKell Wascana Conservation Park on land that was homesteaded by his great grandfather, who first arrived in 1883.

He said that parcel of land was only used for grazing horses and cattle, and was never tilled or even baled.

“When the city started to expand out to that area, our family looked at what the possibilities were for that area,” he said, “and we all decided that we’d hate to see it developed, or put into even Wascana Park – you know, have it changed, basically – because it is such a unique area.”

The family worked with both the city and Ducks Unlimited to protect the land with a conservation easement, creating a park that was dedicated by Prince Philip, the duke of Edinburgh, in 2005. According to Ducks Unlimited, the city won a municipal Environmental Stewardship Award for the park in 2009.

While the land is no longer owned by the family, McKell said the conservation easement continues in perpetuity.

On its website, the city states that the easement is located east of the planned Prince of Wales extension, but McKell said the project goes against the city’s own principles around heritage and environmental sustainability.

“Anywhere where they’re going to come across the creek, they’re going to come across this land that’s pristine native prairie,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if they hit our conservation land. If they go to the west of that, they’re still going to go across the same type of land. It’s, I guess, city land now, but it’s still that same ecosystem… If they use that route at all, they’re going to affect that conservation area.”

McKell said he also worries that if the project goes ahead, it will open the door for other development in the area.

“It is a very unique area in the world, and if you start affecting it, you’re going to lose ecosystem. You’re going to lose species, and that just starts a downward spiral that, down the road, it’ll be gone,” he said.

A consultant’s report recommended the extension, as well as changes to Arcola Avenue. Ward 4 Councillor Mark Burton has said the work is needed to address traffic problems, and believes it can be done without impacting the park.

The survey is open until June 24. The city expects to release a final report on a functional study in December.