Assiniboia Community Committee roundup

St. James-Assiniboia

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This article was published 10/01/2023 (617 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Assiniboia community committee met for the first time in 2023 on Jan. 4.

The meeting began with the committee making its recommendations for citizen member appointments to the Assiniboia library advisory committee, Grant’s Old Mill (St. James-Assiniboia Pioneer Association), and the St. James-Assiniboia Museum board. Each of those assignments will last two years, expiring on Dec. 21, 2024.

The committee moved on to approve of two plans for renovations at commercial properties at 1626 and 1610 Kenaston Blvd. without much discussion.

Next, committee chair Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) explained a motion she’d put forward to seek changes to transit routes to better serve Prairie Pointe. She said the rapid transit system is built on main routes, or spines, and feeder routes that branch off into different neighbourhoods. But Prairie Pointe is so new, she said, that it has not yet been properly accounted for.

“Lo and behold, there’s a whole new neighbourhood that’s developed… This is the incredible thing about the spine and feeder route: you have your main spine and you have all these buses going in the neighbourhood. It’s so easy to make the little tweak. It may change times and change pickups, but it’s not a major overhaul,” said Lukes, pointing to a minor bus route change in the past that Lukes said changed a neighbourhood’s service entirely.

The committee carried the motion, which asked for a report from public works in 120 days that would propose new transit routes and the associated costs of the changes, to better serve the Prairie Pointe neighbourhood.

The committee then held a hearing in regards to a request from the McGowan Russell Group to close of part of a public lane behind an apartment building it owns at 243 Queen St. The lane does ends behind the property and could not act as a thoroughfare, and the real estate company argued it would protect residents from vandalism and theft.

However, the committee agreed with the public services recommendation to leave the lane open, as its closure could impede firefighters from reaching important water valves.