(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

capital budget

Riverside Meadows and Fairview getting a $25 million facelift

Nov 22, 2019 | 10:32 AM

Long-awaited infrastructure upgrades are coming to Riverside Meadows and Fairview after city council approved $25 million in this week’s capital budget for improvements.

The plan covers basic core infrastructure replacement in both neighbourhoods, including intersection improvements, as well as street lighting and streetscape enhancements which align with the City’s multimodal transportation plan.

There will also be concrete and asphalt work, as well as upgrades to lighting, benches, trees, public art, bicycle racks, bulbing and signage along Kerry Wood Drive, 54 Avenue, and 58 & 59 streets. Additional water and storm infrastructure work is also planned.

Chad Krahn, vice president of the Riverside Meadows Community Association, says the improvements are very much welcomed and should help to create a safer and more connected place for everyone.

“It’s important that the City invests in older neighbourhoods as we continue to try to change the narrative around Riverside Meadows,” says Krahn. “Our neighbourhood has some at the low-end obviously, but also in the middle and at the higher end too; this isn’t an exclusively low-end neighbourhood, which sometimes it gets portrayed as and that’s not entirely fair.”

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Krahn believes with public investment comes private investment which should allow Riverside Meadows to grow out from under its gloomy reputation over the long-term.

“The Mustard Seed obviously moved into our neighbourhood three years ago, and they’ve gotten better every year at being a good neighbour,” he admits. “We like to see the City supporting us as well, and as much help as we can get is a good thing.”

(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

Councillor Ken Johnston says going back to Red Deer’s beginnings in the early 1900s, Riverside Meadows (formerly Lower Fairview) has always been an integral part of the community.

“Since my time in Red Deer, so since 1996, Riverside Meadows has emerged as quite a forward-thinking and dynamic community, both as it relates to the community association, and how it’s built an identity for itself,” says Johnston, a second term councillor. “Unfortunately some of that identity is impaired when you get into older infrastructure and buildings, and sometimes those things turn into social disorder.”

Johnston says hopefully the benefits of this makeover, so to speak, will provide the vitality Riverside Meadows deserves.

“We need to be able to take these older neighbourhoods and bring them up to standard,” he adds. “There’s an equity or a fairness to what we’re doing in Riverside Meadows.”

The $25 million is approved to be spent now through 2025, with $5.8 million coming from capital grant funding, $16.3 million from debt funding, and $2.8 million from capital reserve funds. The bulk of it will be spent from 2021-2024, with more than $4.6 million being spent in each of those years.