Kapyong concept plan ‘time to complete that community’

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This article was published 21/10/2020 (1429 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — First Nations leaders say they’ve leaned on both elders and young people in designing a plan for the former Kapyong barracks lands that will be a source of pride for neighbours over generations.

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, people are very interested in this project; they want to be heard,” said Tim Daniels, head of the Treaty One Development Corp. “It’s been many years that it’s been vacant, and now it’s time to complete that community.”

Treaty One unveiled Thursday its concept plan for the vacant south Winnipeg land, which came after presenting the public with three ideas this spring and modifying the most popular design based on feedback and market studies.

Daniels said traditional knowledge-keepers were the first to see the plan, but young people’s ideas shaped its design, as did thousands of locals.

The 160-acre site will mix low- and medium-density housing with retail spaces, cultural sites and public transit links.

The design concept will be part of a master plan that includes things traffic planning and water management. Treaty One (which represents seven First Nations) plans to submit that plan to the City of Winnipeg around Christmas, and present it in detail in January.

Canada Lands Co., the federal Crown corporation which owns one-third of the land, said consulting Manitobans online has brought an unprecedented amount of feedback.

“Overwhelmingly, the feedback had been positive,” said Chris Elkey, Canada Lands vice-president for Western Canada.

“That feedback… has allowed us to strengthen things that were already part of prior concepts, and just reinforce those elements that the communities we engaged deemed important.”

The updated plan envisions slightly curvy streets, with retail along most of Kenaston Boulevard, low-density housing (such as detached homes) bordering the Tuxedo neighbourhood, and mid-density condos in between, with stores on the ground floor.

The bands hope to integrate First Nations names into the site, and provide a home for both Indigenous businesses and cultural events on the two-thirds that will be designated urban reserve.

Treaty One has said it wants to create a war museum that commemorates Indigenous and non-Indigenous soldiers, and has also mulled a college, daycare, hotel and hospice on the sprawling site, which has sat unused since 2004.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca