City Centre Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Working with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, RCMP representatives, and City Centre McMurray, we led a team of international experts to evaluate existing conditions and conceptual plans for the creation of a major downtown waterfront parks initiative for this rapidly growing community.
Our evaluation proactively addressed a significant concern among key park users about safety in parks and downtown, including drug sales/use and homeless camping among other issues.
Recommendations for the five miles of parkland covered everything from nearby land uses and design guidelines to innovative housing within the parks. Hundreds of adjustments to lighting, maintenance, marketing, events, pathway locations, transit shelters and operations, social service programs, and much more were developed, reviewed with the client, and finalized.
Because of our unique SafedesignTM approach, many of our recommendations addressed conditions near the park as well. Importantly, a new set of metrics were suggested to help measure and manage place avoidance behaviors related to safety perceptions.
The report helped the client prepare for the Western Canada Summer Games in 2015 and was used to guide revised plans, interim improvements, and nearby private development.