A portion of Beacon Avenue will be closed to most vehicle traffic for one weekend and Becon Park is now filled with colourful chairs, during a month-long pilot project on Sidney’s waterfront.
As of Monday, July 3, the Town of Sidney placed 50 portable chairs and will add a variety of ‘soft’ sports equipment in Beacon Park and leave it all there until July 28.
Director of Development Services, Engineering, Parks and Works Tim Tanton said during council’s June 26 meeting that the chairs and sports equipment — such as flying discs and beach balls — will cost the Town around $1,500 and would not be removed from the park at night.
“I would suggest the portable chairs will be portable indeed,” said Councillor Tim Chad.
Tanton added the chairs would be left there 24 hours a day but based on research in other places that have tried similar things, they probably won’t be stolen.
“It’ll be interesting to see how people arrange them,” Tanton said. “It’s a bit of an experiment.”
It’s an experiment that’s part of the Town of Sidney’s waterfront visioning plan, which has reached the implementation stage after months of public consultation. Tanton said where people tend to congregate in the park or elsewhere on the waterfront could shape future notions of what the Town might do in the possible redevelopment of the park space.
Initial discussion by staff in a recent report to council, included the possibility of making a small portion of Beacon Avenue — between the east end roundabout and Beacon Wharf — a pedestrian-only space during the month. However, due to short notice and how that might affect businesses on Beacon Wharf, council approved a staff recommendation to try that on only one weekend in July. They did not say which weekend it would be, but Tanton noted Sidney would announce it on social media.
On that one weekend, planters would be placed at the entrance to Beacon Wharf to narrow the entrance to discourage traffic. Cones would be added as well, and yet still provide enough space for emergency vehicle access. That would effectively cut off a small parking area and have visitors and customers of the Sidney Fish Market and Pier Bistro make their way in by foot.
Council also approved the painting of maple leaves along Beacon Avenue — an approval after the fact, at the street was painted prior to the June 24 weekend.
Sidney’s Downtown Waterfront Vision plan was adopted in May after extensive public input. In a staff report, Manager of Planner Alison Verhagen stated that plan includes the possibility of making the east end of Beacon “a pedestrian-priority shared space while maintaining vehicle access to adjacent businesses.”
That area was chosen, she said in a follow up email to the PNR, as it’s the centre of Sidney’s downtown waterfront — and the centre of the study area for the Downtown Waterfront Vision Plan.
To explore if that concept will work, Vehagen noted one of the first actions in the implementation of the plan is to run a “pilot project seasonal closure,” … “to create an inviting pedestrian space that attracts users of the waterfront and downtown.”
The month-long trial period will gauge people’s reactions and possible help design future projects along Sidney’s waterfront. Information and feedback collected during this trial period, Verhagen noted, would be used to plan for a second pilot project in the downtown waterfront in the summer of 2018. The next project may include, she stated, a longer road closure.
