The issue of how to address the city of North Battleford’s walkways was back at a meeting of the Planning Committee on Monday at City Hall.
The city has received numerous complaints from the city’s Centennial Park area over the past few months, with concerns expressed about walking paths leading to an increase in criminal activity. Some residents have called for closure of certain walkways.
City Planner Ryan Mackrell presented council with recommendations for a new walkway closure policy. It outlines an application process for walkway closure requests as well as evaluation criteria, which would ensure all applications are treated the same across the city.
According to the protocol presented under that policy, there would be an application and fee, and then a community meeting would be held for residents within 75 metres.
The city would then do a mandatory Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design review of the walkway, do maintenance, and make a final report that goes to Planning Committee. The final recommendation would then go to council for a vote.
Mackrell also made another recommendation at council to have a request for proposals be conducted to add lighting to the walkways that have received the most recent attention lately.
There is some money available from the Community Safety Budget. There is $10,000 that would have normally gone towards community engagement and events, but that is freed up now because of the pandemic. The intention is for the RFP on walkway lighting to go out in July, with findings presented afterwards for council’s consideration.
This was just the latest discussion on the walkway issue at city hall.
