The city’s plan to widen Golf Links Road and Junot Avenue can bring renewal and growth with it a draft study shows.
The IBI Group presented its draft findings to around 80 people at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium Tuesday night. IBI’s Amy Shepherd said the group wants the public’s help to see what kind of development people want on vacant lands surrounding the area.
“It’s really trying to facilitate future investment and development on vacant lands that might have been hindered by the current conditions of the roadway and capacity,” she said.
Shepherd said the study, which will come before city council near the end of February, shows that area is functioning well as it is but planning needs to happen now for the proposed widening and the economic growth it could bring to vacant lands.
Those lands include the northwest corner of Golf Links Road and John Street, lands north of Oliver Road and Innova Park. The draft study recommends the best way to use Innova Park is as a cluster of mining related businesses with the ability to accommodate a proposed events centre if necessary.
Bill Heitanen, who lives on Central Avenue, said that would be what he wants to see for Innova Park. Using it as a large retail area, suggested in other study options, wouldn’t be a good fit for the area.
"It’s perfect for an industrial application. I don’t think we need to start putting more big box shopping spread around the city,” he said.
Heitenan came to the meeting to find out about a proposed natural gas line going in behind his property and through Innova Park but didn’t get information about it he said.
Lucas Johnson said while Innova Park is near the edge of the city now, it might not be in the future.
“If Thunder Bay decides to expand in that direction we might run into problems with that sort of land use so flexible land use I think is really important,” he said.
Planning also needs to remember that people in the city might not be so reliant on cars in the future. Johnson points to the Thunder Centre as a place that is not very pedestrian or transit friendly.
“Something that Thunder Bay needs to get away from is having massive seas of parking, limited access points and that sort of thing,” he said.
Follow Jamie Smith on Twitter: @Jsmithreporting
