exhibition lands what we heard report July 2018 INTRODUCTION 2 ABOUT THE EXHIBITION LANDS Creating a new vision for a community at the heart of Edmonton offers an unprecedented city-building opportunity. The Edmonton Exhibition Lands are a large piece of land to the northeast of downtown that have historically served as a city gathering space for sporting events, races, and festivals. The area is bordered by multiple existing Exhibition Lands in the 1950s. neighbourhoods and includes: + the Coliseum, a facility that previously operated as a sports and entertainment venue + the Expo Centre, an events and conference centre + a casino and horse track + Borden Park + the Coliseum LRT stop Downtown + major arterial roads Edmonton This area is undergoing a major transformation with the transfer of the Coliseum back to City ownership on January 1, 2018, the transfer of the Expo Centre operations to Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, and the closure of the casino and horse track by the end of January 2019. These changes provide an opportunity for the creation of a new vision for the area. In 2017, the City of Edmonton made a decision to prepare a new Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) for the Exhibition Project Goals Lands. The City has hired an external consulting team led by The Exhibition Lands project started in 2017. The O2 Planning + Design to support the creation of the vision aims of the project are to: for the ARP. 1. To create a vision, design principles and As the City’s second largest urban infill site, in a premier redevelopment concept that will guide the location close to downtown, LRT and transit, the river transformation of the area over the next 20 valley, a vibrant park area and green space amenities, the to 30 years. Exhibition Lands project is an opportunity made for 2. Recommend areas for new development, Edmonton and its big ideas. The City has recognized that open space, urban agrictulture, and heritage the Exhibition Lands project offers a rare chance for preservation, as well as improvements to the Edmonton to tap into the knowledge, connections and urban realm and transportation network. capacity of forward thinkers from the local community and 3. Define/create an implementation plan that beyond. guides short, medium, and long term priorities. 3 SITE MAP: EXISTING CONDITIONS Wally Footz Field Eastwood School Santa Rose Park Coliseum James Kidney LRT Station Park Planned rehabilitation of transit Edmonton Coliseum infrastructure Closed on January 1, 2018 and responsibility transferred to the City of Edmonton 400 m Potential LRT EXPO Centre Storage & Cleaning Operations transferred Facility to Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) on January 1, 2018 Heritage Resource: Edmonton Light & Power Substation #100 Northlands Race Heritage Resource: Track & Casino ­e Northern + Due for closure in 2019 (Q1) Alberta Pioneers and Old Timers’ + Northlands to provide Association Cabin K-Days and Farm Fair onsite & Giant Milk Bottle for 5 years Heritage Resource: Northlands Borden Park Band Shell Urban Farm Borden Park BORDEN PARK Borden Park Borden Park Revitalization completed with opening of Natural Swimming Experience (Summer 2018) Stutchbury Virginia Park Park Elementary School Concordia University of Edmonton Jane Salisbury Park Sheriff Robertson Park Kinnaird Ravine 0 75 150 300 450 600 Metres Dawson Park 4 PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT 2017 PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT OF GUIDING To ensure that the plan and concept developed will meet PRINCIPLES the needs and harness the ideas of Edmontonians, the City Based on the input from the 2017 engagement, the City is conducting extensive public engagement. conducted an Insight Survey in January 2018, meetings with its Community Stakeholder Committee, and a series The first phase of public engagement in June 2017 included of stakeholder workshops with various community groups two public open houses and an online survey focused on in Spring 2018. From the survey and the discussions with the opportunities and concerns for the site. More than 830 stakeholders, a series of eight Guiding Principles were people responded to these opportunities to provide input developed for the Exhibition Lands Redevelopment Project. and submitted over 6600 comments. The final Guiding Principles were endorsed by the Urban Planning Committee of Council on April 3, 2018. This preliminary feedback provided some initial discussion about the future of the site and the identification of The Guiding Principles represent major elements and public opportunities and concerns. The findings were summarized priorities for the Exhibition Lands Redevelopment, in a What We Heard Report in September 2017. providing a high-level vision and direction for the site. These Guiding Principles have been used to frame the discussion in the subsequent phases of engagement and will also be used to evaluate the draft redevelopment options in the upcoming concept development phases of the project. GUIDING PRINCIPLES Support neighbourhood, Advance the sustainability and city and regional economic resilience of our environment. development. Support all transportation Foster compact urban choices. development. Incorporate viable and creative Ensure responsible return on ideas for redevelopment public investment. to leverage the site’s scale, location and assets. Celebrate local history, heritage and cultures. Contribute to the social, physical and mental well- being of residents and all Edmontonians. 5 SPRING 2018 ENGAGEMENT From April to June 2018, the City of Edmonton put out a call to the public for ideas that could be incorporated into the future redevelopment of the Exhibition Lands. We are here! IDEA GENERATION DUE DILLIGENCE DEVELOP CONCEPTS REFINE CONCEPT PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Duplicate submissions and those that did not include ideas There were two primary public engagement components were removed from the overall list. This provided a that took place from April to June 2018. The first combined list of 94 complete public idea submissions. component, the Idea Generation, consisted of an online submission of ideas. The second, the Idea Review, consisted Request for Expression of Ideas (RFEOI) of two open houses to review the submitted ideas and The purpose of the RFEOI process was to provide a channel start to create site layout options. for the submission of detailed ideas for the site. The RFEOI process was open to all members of the public, though this Idea Generation | April 10 - May 7 method of submission was primarily used by members of During the Idea Generation stage, the City asked the public the development industry. The City of Edmonton received to send in their big ideas for the future of the Exhibition 12 RFEOI submissions (Appendix A). Lands. Anyone with an idea could choose to submit it through an open web portal or prepare a more detailed Public Idea Review | June 21 submission through the City’s ‘Request for Expressions of Two public engagement sessions were hosted on June 21 at Ideas’ (RFEOI) process. Instructions for both the web portal the Expo Centre to present the submitted ideas and ask and RFEOI directed all submissions to consider the Guiding people to review idea themes and create potential Principles for the project. combinations that might work. The Project Team interacted with 118 people who attended the events to share their Web Portal & Other Public Submissions thoughts and visions for the future of the Exhibition Members of the public were invited to submit ideas through Lands site. a web portal hosted on the City of Edmonton’s website from April 10 to May 7. The web portal received 56 individual submissions (Appendix B). The City received additional responses through direct correspondence with City staff, including written and emailed submissions (Appendix C). 6 7 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Internal Stakeholders Internal Workshop In addition to open public engagement, the City met with The Project Team conducted a workshop with City staff to several specific stakeholder groups to discuss their review the ideas generated by the public and discuss perspectives on the Exhibition Lands Redevelopment upcoming needs for City infrastructure and servicing, Project. including transit, parks, and recreation. External Stakeholders Information Session Meetings with Stakeholder Groups An information session was hosted on June 20, 2018 to From March to June 2018, the City delivered presentations educate City senior staff and members of Council on to specific stakeholder groups. The purpose of these lessons learned from other large redevelopment projects in meetings was to provide an overview of the Exhibition Canada. A panel of four speakers presented projects they Lands Redevelopment Project, highlighting the desire for had worked on, and then participated in a question and the project team to gather ideas and interest for the answer period with attendees. To help familiarize the redevelopment plan. speakers with the project site, speakers were invited to join the Industry Walking Tour earlier in the day. Highlights from The City met with six industry groups: the Information Session were shown in a slideshow at the + Edmonton Chamber of Commerce June 21 Public Idea Review. + Development industry information session / industry walking tour The four speakers at the event were: + Alberta Avenue Business Improvement Area + Chris Elkey – Vice President Real Estate (West), Canada + Real Estate Advisory Committee (REAC) Lands Company (CLC) + Edmonton Economic Development Corporation + Michael Brown – President