Heritage park… ing necessary

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2012 (4958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It would have been easier and more profitable if the Friends of Upper Fort Garry had decided four years ago to retain an existing parking lot until it had the money in hand to begin the development of a new provincial park and interpretive centre around the historic gate of the Hudson’s Bay Company fort.

Instead, based on an uncertain business plan, the group proceeded to level the entire site, presumably in the hope that the original plans would come off without a hitch. As history repeatedly shows, however, these cultural projects tend to take longer and be more expensive than originally envisioned.

The redevelopment was supposed to cost $12 million, but it has since soared to $19 million. The Friends are hoping it will be ready to proceed in about two years, providing it is allowed to use a corner of the lot for parking in the meantime. The extra revenue combined with ongoing fundraising and property-tax relief should help bring the project home, or at least that’s the latest plan.

It’s impossible to be sure that the Friends will be ready in two years, but their requests for tax relief and permission to use some of the land for parking are reasonable and ought to be granted. There is no other good alternative and rejecting their requests will merely set back the project.

The proposed parking lot would be in violation of civic policy against new surface lots downtown, but this is a special case and it is only temporary, we’re told.

The heritage plan emerged four years ago following a development proposal for a new highrise apartment complex on a corner of the site. The Friends wrongly opposed the complex, believing it would somehow taint their project. In fact, it would have increased safety in the area and provided new taxes for the city. It should have been possible for the two projects to coexist in the downtown, but that bridge, as they say, has been crossed.

The responsibility of the Friends, the city and the province now is to ensure the design of the heritage park, which will stretch along Main Street from Assiniboine Avenue to Broadway, is sensitive to the neighbourhood and the historic context.

The Hudson’s Bay Company is the oldest continually operating business in Canada (and Manitoba, for that matter), and Winnipeg is lucky to have several tangible links to that heritage, including the surviving wall and gate from the 19th-century fort.

It could easily serve as the downtown gateway to The Forks, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and historic St. Boniface, a walking and learning tour unlike any other.