How they’re going to feng shui Foster Drive

Foster Drive is a key 700-metre bit of waterfront roadway beginning at Station Mall, running past Roberta Bondar Park, the OLG building and city hall, then sweeping left under the Rotary Welcome Arch to Bay Street.

As SooToday has reported this past week, the City of Sault Ste. Marie is working with a design consultant to put the finishing touches on a plan to revitalize our waterfront.

Whether you're looking for spiritual enlightenment or just a place to fish, buy a corn dog or exercise your democratic rights to protest or party, you'll find it all in the neighbourhood they want to build around the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre.

"The revitalized civic district at city hall focuses on connecting city hall to the water’s edge, while also providing a dynamic outdoor community hub for a centralized location for community gathering and events," said a written presentation made to city council last week.

"The site becomes a welcoming beacon to visitors and residents that embraces and encourages family life, recreation and spiritual health within a seamlessly integrated landscape.

"The revitalized site creates greater visual transparency to execute a shared social realm and expresses the values of an open and democratic environment.

"The gathering area and water’s edge become a focal point of daily urban life with a direct pedestrian link to the Soo MARKT plaza, while also providing flexible space for civic events and activities," the report stated.

Key elements of the draft plan for the Foster Drive area:

• water's edge promenade
• reduction of asphalt parking area
• revitalized green space
• new gathering deck
• water's edge terraces
• fishing terraces
• wood pier
• green spine between the Soo MARKT and gathering area
• realignment of Foster Drive between Spring Street and Brock Street
• traffic-calmed streets (Foster, Bay and Spring)

"We're looking at... connectivity between this waterfront area up to Spring Street and to our [downtown] plaza," said Travis Anderson, the city's director of tourism and community development.

"We're also looking at this area for potential cantilevers out into the waterways to view the cruise ships and freighters a lot better, as well as a bridge to Clergue Park," Anderson said.

Landscape architect Nick Onody from O2 Planning and Design told a recent city committee meeting that the proposed pedestrian bridge linking the civic centre to Clergue Park wouldn't be like a nearby walkway beside Montana's.

Onody described it as a "much more architectural and sculptural sort of" wooden bridge.

If you've ever felt you needed to walk across a lot of grassy slopes to get to the Roberta Bondar tent pavilion, Onody has proposed adding more pathways there.

"What we've done is created true pathways within the park so that you're not traversing lawn in order to enter the Bondar pavilion from Foster Drive.

"So we have created pathways within the park system to get you to the pavilion to the waterfront edge and we have activated the marina-edge side of the Bondar pavilion with an area for pop-up commercial retail activation for year-round use, but also associated with the Bondar in terms of events and other things that are happening within the pavilion," Onody said.

A final draft of the waterfront plan, complete with rough cost estimates and a timeline for phasing and implementation, is to be ready by the end of this month.

Final choice on whether to adopt any of the recommendations lies with city council.