Stepping ahead with Downs proposal

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This article was published 18/01/2016 (3792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Jan. 12, the Assiniboia Community Committee gave the green light to Assiniboia Downs’ urban reserve master plan.

The plan outlines a preliminary proposal for 36 acres of Assiniboia Downs’ 142-acre property.
“We’re on the right track and the initial vision is put out there,” said Downs CEO Darren Dunn. “We envision commercially developing the southern portion of the Downs.”

Dunn said the Downs has been interested in repurposing part of its property for some time. He said that commercialization will likely include hotels, but it’s too early to plan for other buildings or retailers.

“The area we’ve identified for development provides a lot of parking space that was built around the horse racing model of many years ago,” he said. “Now horse racing has such strong distribution via the internet and television that a person can enjoy the sport without having to be onsite.”

He added that an urban reserve feels like an appropriate use of the space.

“We were looking for a partner who could share a development vision and we believe we found that in Peguis First Nation,” he said.

The plan still has many steps to go through before any construction or changes can begin.

“It could eventually come to council,” said Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre). “I think that an urban reserve, some really positive things could come out of that. We have the fastest growing Aboriginal population in Canada, so it could be a great economic engine for our city.”

She added that urban reserves have been effective in other places throughout Canada and could have the same positive effect here.

“There could, for example, be more jobs created out there depending on what is developed,” said Scott Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston). “The more people you have working in the community, the more you have shopping at local businesses and filling up at local gas stations, so there’s significant potential.”

The next steps include service studies for sewage and water, a traffic impact study, a land drainage report and a parking assessment.

“There are just too many steps to speculate on a construction start,” Dunn said.

At the Jan. 12 meeting, Coun. Gillingham put forward a motion for a public service report to be done on what other municipalities across Canada have done in similar cases.

“Winnipeg can learn a lot from their best practices and identify any potential pitfalls and lessons that they’ve learned,” he said. “Half of the councillors are new so we really need to make an informed decision on this.”