A bold vision for Jackson site
Concept: This design is one example of the mixed residential, commercial and institutional developments envisioned for the J.L. Jackson property.
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Updated: November 04, 2009 6:45 AM
This is the first in a three-part series on the Smart Growth initiative.
Unified visions based on Smart Growth principles may help guide future development of one of the city’s most valued properties.
Two plans for the former J.L. Jackson school site were brought before city council this month. One was presented by representatives of School District #83 which owns the 12-acre downtown property. The other was presented by a small contingent representing the 500 or so volunteers who helped compile the Downtown Salmon Arm Smart Growth Process report, a key of focus of which is the Jackson property. While both plans were independently conceived, they share many details. The similarities, according to Bill Grainger, who with the Committee for a Strong and Sustainable Salmon Arm (CASSSA) spearheaded the report, are due to the plans sharing the same design philosophy.
“They sent us their principles and they were really Smart Growth principles,” said Grainger. Both plans feature a mix of commercial, residential and institutional uses, while promoting green space, pedestrian-friendly connectivity to the downtown and the fairgrounds, environmentally-sustainable development and public meeting space. Both plans maintain a maximum footprint for the main commercial building; in the school district’s plan it’s up to 75,000 square feet, and in the report it’s 50,000, with the possibility of 100,000 with two floors.
Other possibilities for the property included in the report are a daycare and affordable housing. The existing school district buildings, including the Downtown Activity Centre, are left, in addition to new institutional space to meet the expressed needs of the school district and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District.
“We always get a little frustrated being labelled anti-development,” commented Grainger’s cohort, Bill Remphrey. “I mean… there’s lots of work being done here to promote development. A lot of people who say they’re pro-development just want the easy way out. They just want a box mall and they’re done.”
Grainger notes the biggest difference between the two plans is parking and green space. Twenty-five per cent of the property in the school district’s plan is preserved as green space. In the report it’s substantially more, achieved by placing parking under the main commercial facility.
“We support the school board’s plan… They’ve come so far,” says Grainger. “We’d like this, this is a bit better. It would be a really great community space if we could do this.”
But Grainger and Remphrey agree that hiding parking under the site will depend on a geotechnical study.
School district secretary-treasurer Bruce Hunt agrees.
“We don’t know it it’s feasible, from a technical point, and it’s really something that developers would have to look at, said Hunt. “They would go through the geotechnical piece as they’re putting together their development concepts.”
Otherwise, Hunt too sees many elements from the report incorporated in the school district’s plan. And he says a copy of the report would be provided to potential developers for further guidance.
“We’d pass that one to developers in the development process as a concept, one example of a concept for that property,” said Hunt.
In addition, the city will be including the Smart Growth report in its ongoing official community planning process. Meanwhile, Grainger says design boards from the report featuring Jackson and other elements of the report will soon be placed in the windows of businesses around town for the public to see.
Additional information can be found at www3.telus.net/public/csssa1/.
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