City Centre McMurray - Redeveloping the Downtown Core of Fort McMurray

It is no secret that I am a fan of the redevelopment of the city centre in Fort McMurray. Just this past week I did a fairly lengthy interview centred around that redevelopment, and why I feel it to be so vital to the future of this community. I shared with the interviewer my belief that this redevelopment is crucial to this community reaching our full potential, and I spoke to him about what excites me about it. And I spoke to him about the pain we will go through getting there, too, the changes that some will find hard, and the difficult times along the way, like land expropriations. In the end, though, I believe that we will achieve amazing things here - and change always comes with some pain, and it is never easy. I truly believe, though, that through working together, being empathetic to the pain of others, and being bold and courageous even when afraid of change, we can achieve great things. We can create a community that will amaze the world - and that will, perhaps, amaze even us.

I was not able to attend the recent engagement centres held by the RMWB, but when I visited the City Centre McMurray site recently I found a PowerPoint presentation that intrigued me, and I wanted to share it with you. It provides a lot of information that until now I did not know, and it contains some interesting little tidbits that will require further explanation (eg, the proposed illumination of Jubilee Plaza, as the slide with the "sphere" or "half sun" puzzled me a great deal as I tried to suss out exactly what was being suggested, and the suggestion about using crowd power to move a "timber island" made me wonder about potential liability issues). The thing is, though, that this slide show lays out some very concrete plans as well as a vision for the redevelopment. There is solid information about parking, and about the development of roads in the downtown core. It is most definitely worth a few moments of your time to look at, as this is the future of Fort McMurray. This is the vision for our home, and for what we will look like in the years to come. Despite my occasional questions about this vision I was excited to view this slide show - because I too want to share in this vision. This is my community, and my home. This is my future, Fort McMurray. This is, in fact, our future. View the slideshow, visit the website, submit your comments and questions, and get engaged with this vision for the centre of our city - and of our community. 

And the vision behind the plan...