(05-25-2023, 04:48 PM)Lens Wrote:(05-24-2023, 02:49 PM)SF22 Wrote: I'd pitched this idea to my ward councillor and also on a couple of the Engage Kitchener surveys, but we need to scrap the surface parking lot at Ahrens beside the KPL. There's a whole underground parking garage now, and that whole area could get reutilized into expanding the Civic Centre Park with a basketball court and/or a mini splashpad to service the NE end of downtown (to balance the splashpad in Victoria Park, which is often very busy in the summers). You could double the size of the existing park and make it a larger draw for downtown residents, especially those who will move into 20 Queen, 10 Duke, Civic 66 and The Scott. The city already owns the land, it just needs to happen!
The city/region already had done 3ish different designs for a park on this patch 6-7 years ago. No idea why they're clinging to 30 parking spaces vs an excellent urban park
YES I knew I'd seen plans for that before! I stumbled across the drawings once and have never managed to find them again. But honestly, I figured once they put the underground garage in, that surface lot would be short-lived. Shows what I know.
It feels like such a logical location for more greenspace - it's already near other major public draws (the KPL and CITS), and instead of starting a new park from scratch, they could expand an existing one to create a much larger space. It's a block or two away from the heart of downtown, much like Victoria Park. It should be such a gimme, and it's such a shame they're just sitting on it.