Jasper Avenue on road to becoming pedestrian destination

A plan to return Jasper Avenue to more of a pedestrian destination took another step at a public meeting aimed at developing preliminary designs for a new streetscape.  

Dozens of people came out to offer ideas at the meeting Monday night, including bike lanes, reduced traffic flow, better use of traffic lights,  wider sidewalks and acknowledgement of the avenue's long history.

• Jasper Avenue: A 2nd chance to get Edmonton's main street right

Imagine Jasper project coordinator Satya Gadidasu said the workshops are important in order to get it right.

"Today we are ... making sure the vision is in line with what the public is trying to communicate with us," he said. "Understand from them and listen from them about the issues and opportunities and concerns they have on existing Jasper Avenue."

The project will set a vision for how Jasper Avenue could look decades into the future, he said. 

"This is not just for the Oliver community," Gadidasu said, adding all of Edmonton has a stake.  "It is for the people who live in the west end and the south end, so they can come and enjoy the businesses and opportunities."

Matt Bigg, who lives just off Jasper, is watching the process closely. He said he wants to see more greenery along the avenue.

"I want to see more trees," Bigg said. "On 105th Avenue just behind Molson (Brewery), they have this really cool area where they are growing huge trees, in these big tree pits.

"And all the storm water from the street is running through a catch basin and into those tree pits. So they are growing those trees naturally. "

But in many areas of the city, "we don't use our storm water very well,"  he added.

The section of Jasper Avenue from 109th Street to 124th Street is slated for full reconstruction beginning in 2018.

The conceptual design for Jasper Avenue is expected to be completed in the fall of 2016, with construction anticipated to start in 2018.