New North District Winnipeg police station plan leaves more green space, community facilities

Winnipeggers will have a chance Monday to tell city councillors what they think of a new plan for a controversial police station in the city's North End.

New details came out Tuesday morning in a report to the city's Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan committee that lays out a new plan to build the North District Winnipeg police station at the Old Exhibition Grounds.

A public hearing on the new plan is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

The new building would take up almost five acres of the northeast corner of the grounds, in the Mynarski ward.

The plan leaves Sergeant Tommy Prince Place recreation centre and attached community facilities, Sgt. Tommy Prince MM Veteran's Park, the baseball diamonds and the football field where they are.

The police station itself is planned as a 33,465-square-foot single-storey building with a driveway loop at the Sinclair Street entrance with 25 visitor parking spaces.

In the back, the station would have a parking lot for cruisers and staff vehicles surrounded by a two-metre-tall chain-link fence.

Near Sinclair Street, there would be a "community ceremonial garden, including medicinal plants, birch trees, a lockable fire pit and natural seating elements such as stumps and boulders," the report says. The area would also "permit the installation of a teepee."

The city would have to make a few changes before construction could start.

Apart from rezoning the area for the police station, the city would tear down the building at 100 Sinclair St. The Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre was located there, but the group is moving to a new office in Sgt. Tommy Prince Place.

The outdoor hockey rink and garden boxes in the northeast corner of the grounds would also be torn down.

As compensation, the city would renovate the old arena building at Sgt. Tommy Prince Place, converting it to new offices and a fieldhouse for the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre, the report says.

The city also would improve the old tennis courts and the surrounding area.

The police station would be just north of Flora Place, a cul-de-sac off Sinclair Street where there are 28 units that provide affordable housing to seniors who can live independently. The police station grounds will come right up behind the houses, but leave them intact.

The new building will replace the police station at Hartford Avenue, which the police service has said is too small and outdated for current needs, and has suffered rat infestations.

Older plans for the police station would have taken over more green space and sports facilities.

Public backlash was swift after the earlier plans were released, and city staff came back with this compromise plan after several public feedback events.