By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Not easy being green: Servus Arena walkway feature scrapped amid colour clash

Feb 16, 2018 | 3:36 PM

A prominent feature planned for Red Deer’s new Servus Arena is now kaput.

Servus Credit Union, who purchased the naming rights for the arena last year through a sponsorship deal with The City of Red Deer last year, had proposed an additional ‘gateway’ feature along the arena’s new promenade.

They were hoping it would be green.However, The City’s Municipal Planning Commission decided this week that it must be red, prompting Servus, who designed the feature and offered to pay for it, to scrap the gateway altogether.

Mayor Tara Veer, who chairs the MPC, says the vote came down to aesthetics. 

“The rationale for that is in the Rotary Recreation Park Master Plan, the pedestrian walkway there marks the beginning of phase one of that linear pedestrian spine,” she explains. “The commission had a substantial conversation around that because that pedestrian walkway needs to tie in with the overall intent and aesthetic of that Rotary Recreation Master Plan.”

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Veer says the commission was favourable to some sort of feature, but was in favour of it aligning with The City’s planning documents.

Shelley Gagnon, Recreation Parks and Culture Manager, says the design was a method of extending Servus’s on-site branding.

“I think the idea was really just another way for Servus to step forward as good partners on the site,” she says. “It really was about the activation of their brand and the partnership between them and The City. Even the archway itself is consistent with their brand because they have the circle.”

MPC has approved the reconstruction of the Servus Arena parking lot, a project that is scheduled to begin with underground work in May be completed ahead of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August.

Servus Credit Union did not respond to our request for comment.