Exciting developments ahead for Lacombe's downtown area

Lacombe’s Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan (DARP) Committee provided an update to City council last week on their ongoing work to create a more vibrant and inviting downtown area. Here’s a look at some of the items the committee is working on.

Work continues on the landmark 

The work on the City’s landmark is coming along and design for the landmark has been chosen. The committee has chosen a heart-shaped structure that they hope to construct at the corner of 50th Avenue and 52nd Street.  

Image courtesy of the Lacombe City Council February 14th agenda.

The heart shaped design is also used in the word mark design the committee came up with becoming the ‘B’ in the word ‘Lacombe’.

“People on that committee sort of referenced the fact that they saw a ‘B’ when they looked at the heart and that it didn't necessarily look like a heart to them. Other people spoke very plainly that they thought it was a heart. We just had some fun with it and thought that two of them could be used interchangeably. We ended up with a really fun kind of versatile element that we thought worked well for the downtown,” Guy Lapointe, Director of Community Services for the City of Lacombe.

During the council presentation, there were council members who were concerned about removing the Lacombe Rotary Club clock which currently sits at the location where the landmark will be installed. Lapointe says the committee will be taking those concerns back with them.  

Photo of the Lacombe Rotary Club clock. 

“The group wants to put this sign in the best location possible and the consultant has indicated through the discussions that this would be an optimal placement. They’re happy to reach out and talk to impacted groups like the Rotary,” said Lapointe.

The clock itself has been inoperable for a number of years. 

The committee is targeting a June or July installment for the landmark.

String lights project delayed

The string light project has become a larger and more costly project than what the committee was originally anticipating. It has now become a medium-term project meaning that it will likely see completion a few years later than expected. The DARP committee believes it is necessary to push back the project to ensure that it is properly installed.  

“Originally, the committee thought that was a really easy small win to deliver. Once they started to review it, to do the actual work was going to make it a little bit more costly than they anticipated because there was wind issues that you had to address,” said Lapointe.

Pedestrian accessibility remains a priority for the committee. If they were to secure the string lights properly, some of that work would have to be redone if sidewalks or streets get torn up in other work that may need to be done.  

“Then you're doing that work twice and so the committee really thought that it made sense to sort of delay the string lighting to be something that piggybacked on bigger projects when those projects presented themselves,” added Lapointe.  

Regrading the Lacombe Memorial Centre Courtyard

The DARP committee will be working with a contractor to regrade the grassy area of the Lacombe Memorial Centre Courtyard this year. The grass typically becomes destroyed as a result of the ice surface that is constructed in the winter for skating.

“The landscape architect that the city talked to indicated that there was a good chance that this this regrading of the surface would address the issue. It was so much cheaper than coming up with an artificial solution or completely reworking that site to accommodate an ice surface,” said Lapointe.

The committee expressed a desire to keep the natural integrity of the area over the installation of something more artificial in hopes that it saves money, and preserves the look of the courtyard.

Regrading the area means there is a chance the work will interfere with certain events such Lacombe Days, but Lapointe says the committee is hoping to schedule the work for September to avoid that.

“Since we're on it early, we're hopeful that we’ll be first on the list, and we can sort of choose our time, as is the plan from the committee side,” he added.

Other work continues

As for long-term projects, the work continues including for that of the Public Space Connector which is more commonly referred to as the ‘Pocket Park’ by the committee. Lapointe says the committee is continuing to consider concepts involving the idea at this time.  

“The idea is that you know you're trying to build a bit of a gathering place, maybe something that you know links parking lots to the active space downtown. The pocket park is kind of an evolution of that concept,” said Lapointe.  

At this time, a location for the pocket park has not been determined.  

You can check out the full DARP presentation in the Lacombe City Council February 14th agenda. For more information on DARP, click here.