A long-talked about proposal to bring in formalized neighbourhoods to North Battleford is moving forward at City Hall.
Council has given its approval to a resolution supporting the Formalizing Neighbourhoods project. The resolution’s passage means the process towards formalizing neighbourhoods can now get moving, but it will still take plenty of time and consultations before the process is completed.
The initiative comes from the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design committee. The committee has put forward a recommendation for the creation of formalized neighbourhoods, with the thinking that it would improve community safety and promote more community pride.
City Planner Ryan Mackrell noted at council Monday that right now there are only about three identifiable neighbourhoods -- Killdeer Park, Fairview Heights and Riverview.
“What we found is most of our residents really do not know their neighbourhoods outside of your ‘top three’,” said Mackrell.
They want to start a program to create identifiable neighbourhoods and start reinforcing them through local, small events throughout the city.
To begin the process, the idea is to go out and gather some feedback from residents and report on their findings through a series of community engagements.
The plan is to hold a number of low-cost events throughout the city, with various activities ranging from street hockey to barbeques. The proposed budget is approximately $1500 a year for three years, which had been included in the Planning and Development operating budget.
The purpose of the events is to encourage as much participation as possible. According to Mackrell, people would get to know their surroundings and their neighbours, and that would increase civic pride.
By 2019 the goal is to work on “branding” the neighbourhoods so that they could be clearly identified. This could include putting up neighbourhood signs in these areas as well.
