They came with a petition, questions and a request to change Lac La Biche's multi-million dollar downtown Streetscape. They left with more questions.
Representatives of 54 people who signed a petition against the proposed $16 million downtown Lac La Biche makeover feel their recent meeting with Lac La Biche County council hasn't made a difference to the ongoing plans.
The project, which has been in the works for three years, will replace old underground utility infrastructure and renovate the surface level of the Lac La Biche main street. The first phase of the three-phase project was partially completed last year from 105 Street to 103 Street. Approval to go ahead with the streetscape design was approved by Lac La Biche County council last year.
With just months to go before construction on the second phase begins, however, some business owners are now questioning the project and the process.
Danny Smaiel, with Lac Biche's Smiley's Furniture and Electronics along with Kiely and Kolby McKay from the community's downtown NAPA Auto Parts store presented a petition to Lac La Biche County council on January 27, along with a four-page letter and links to research documents detailing their concerns about reduced parking, sidewalk and roadway widths, overall costs and public consultation relating to the plan.
"We are hoping this information will lead the mayor and councillors to have a closer look at this plan, and hopefully discard most of its features, especially relating to a narrow main street, large bulbouts and lost parking," wrote the McKays, stressing that while they aren't against a beautification plan, they just want to see it done without reducing the width of the road and losing parking spaces due to the proposed sidewalk bulbouts.
"The plans look great on paper. They are really pretty. The bulbouts look good. I just don' think they are usable. I don't think the trade-off for our town is beneficial," Kiely told council members. "And I think a lot of residents agree with that and I don't think a lot of residents even know that this is happening."
Smaiel also questioned the overall plan and the public's ability to have a say on it. Underlining that the petition and concerns did not signify an "us versus you" mindset towards council, he said the business owners who signed the petition are simply concerned that things have moved along too quickly without proper consultation.
"People have not been as well informed as they should have been," said Smaiel who also said he has been trying to pass along information on the project to other downtown merchants since the plans and discussions first began in early 2019.
The first public consultation for the proposed Downtown Streetscape was on February 5 and 6 of 2019. Very few people attended either of the evening sessions at McArthur Place. In October and November of that year, the Mission Main Street project took place to bring a hands-on feel to the proposed re-design for the downtown corridor. The project included municipal staff on the street offering surveys and answering questions from the general public. The project also featured the installation of large, concrete bollards meant to represent the space taken up by proposed sidewalk bulbouts at intersections. While the plan did attract attention, it also attracted criticism over the concrete barriers.
Concerns from businesses, including a presentation to the previous council by Smaiel and other business owners, cut the project short and saw the concrete barriers removed. That was just over two years ago.
Since then, Smaiel says, business owners thought the entire project was scrapped.
"When the trial stopped, business people thought the plan was not going to proceed," he said, explaining that the continuing stresses of difficult economic times and the huge impact of the COVID pandemic saw local business owners simply "lose focus" of the project.
"Now, fast-forward to six months ago ... and we knew it was going forward again," he said, surprised to hear that the downtown project's final designs had been approved and funding was being put in place. "Now we are handcuffed with the narrow street, slower speeds, less parking ... Don't restrict us. Let us do our jobs with a nice, even-flow of cars and pedestrians."
Some of those concerns were addressed in the open house meetings and council discussions held in 2020 and 2021, leading to approval late last year of the most recent design that reduces the size of the sidewalk bulbouts and maximizes parking by keeping the angle of the stalls at 60 degrees.
That information, however, argued Smaiel, is not common knowledge with business owners who want to have their voices heard.
Although saying he did attend a couple of the Main Street meetings over the years, Smaiel says that he and the McKays, along with those who signed the petition, believe many aspects of the project have moved ahead without proper communication.
"There was open houses, I attended one, I attended a couple actually, but at the end of the day, people have to be almost inundated with information to participate," said Smaiel.
McKay echoed those sentiments.
"The reaction of people when we talk about this plan and tell them that it's happening is that most people think it was shut down two years ago," he said.
Many meetings
Lac La Biche County officials and council members, on the other hand, say that is anything but the case. They listened to the concerns from the business group at the recent special meeting, even though the most recent design plans were approved.
Citing media coverage, online promotions, direct mail and email information bulletins, surveys, community consultations and face-to-face meetings with downtown business owners, and numerous public council discussions and decisions, they too showed surprised that businesses weren't aware the project was approved and moving ahead.
"It's a little bit disheartening for me to hear," said Lac La Biche County's Deputy Mayor Lorin Tkachuk, one of the four current members of council who were part of the previous elected body that voted in favour to go ahead with the latest design plans. "We did have open houses for the last year and a half. The Chamber (of Commerce) has had information on it, they had the plans, so did the Visitor Information Centre. The POST has ben writing articles pretty consistently for the last two years about the changes."
Tkachuk went further to say the architectural firm went to local schools for input and a series of public and business surveys and consultations resulted in feedback that helped to re-draft the plans time and time again.
Plamondon area councillor Colette Borgun said the last-minute presentation from the business representatives doesn't sit well.
"I just feel a little saddened ... i just don't feel we are partners right now in the room, today, at all," she said, questioning the presenter's claims that information has been difficult to get. "We have communicated very well with the public. We have, right from day one."
Borgun said concerns over the size of bulbouts and the need to minimize the amount of parking stalls affected by the new plan have been part of a long history of meetings and public discussions about the plan for more than two years.
"We went through all that. I .. I just feel — I have to say it again, I just feel really sad," she said. "It just seems that when we want to get one step ahead, we take five steps back."
Smaiel told council he feels the business community and council are "on the same team" when it comes to the betterment of the community. He apologized for any feelings of discomfort — but underlined the reason for the petition and the presentation.
"We want to make very clear. There are people's livelihoods at stake," he said, explaining that the loss of even a few parking stalls in the design plans could affect already-strained revenues.
More changes
Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov said that despite the timing of the presentation, a compromise could still be found.
Understanding the issues that a narrow roadway and reduced parking could have for the downtown businesses, and also commenting that a plan to widen sidewalks for more pedestrian traffic only works if there are more pedestrians, Reutov said any decision would be "a fine line" to walk.
"Council or I do not want to be seen as the guy that makes the decision that kills downtown, or ultimately bottle-necks it to a point," he said, adding that design elements should be done realistically. " Beautification is not necessarily an improvement. Widening and beautifying a sidewalk that nobody ever uses is not an improvement.
After a lengthy discussion following the presentation, councillors approved the latest plan for the Streetscape, revising the design approved just two days earlier.
The new plan will see sidewalk widths reduced slightly from the previous design to allow for a wider main street surface. Council also voted to adjust parking stalls so full-size pickup trucks can back out of stalls without backing across the centre line of the roadway.
And the bulbouts?
They're staying, confirmed council — but a decision was made to reduce the overall size of the bulbouts at intersections and crosswalks. That decision confused councillors Darlene Beniuk and Sterling Johnson, who thought there would be a vote to remove the bulbouts completely from the plan.
That vote already happened, said the mayor and deputy mayor.
As a reminder, Tkachuk re-read the motion that took place six-weeks earlier at a December 21 special council meeting where almost a dozen motions were made that linked to the Streetscape planning. Some of those decisions included approval for the $16 million debenture ot pay for the project, the inclusion of speakers in some lamp-posts ... and continuing with the bulbouts.
Johnson and Beniuk both voted in favour of the bulbout motion, along with all other councillors except for councillor Kevin Pare.
Days after the meeting and the decision, Smail was disappointed, but said he hopes others in the community will come out to question the plan moving forward.
"It's not practical. It's not real life," he said, encouraging others to state their case ... no matter how long the process has taken. "It's not too late."
