Victoria_Park_Re port Final.pdf - City of Charlottetown

VICTORIA PARK COMPREHENSIVE MASTER PLAN
Final Report • June 2013
Plan Goals
Victoria Park is, and was always considered by many to be the Crown Jewel of the
City of Charlottetown’s public open space. It elicits a strong sense of civic pride that
was evident throughout the public consultation process. The overarching intent of this
comprehensive planning process is to protect the significant assets of this park for the
future use and enjoyment of the citizens of Prince Edward Island. This process imagines
integrating the well-held image of Victoria Park as a historic asset into an iterative
framework for the renewal and adaptive reuse of existing facilities, all with the intent to
preserve core park values and meet the needs of future park users.
Collaboration
Victoria Park belongs to the Citizens of Prince Edward Island. As such, in order to
continue to meet the community’s objectives for this valuable asset, a collaborative
approach to management is required, to coordinate the many potentially competing
interests. In particular, close ties need to be maintained between the Province as the
land owner and the City of Charlottetown as the land manager. The City needs to
continue to work with and support community groups such as the Friends of Victoria
Park, to ensure that the public’s interests are served to the same quality that they have
been over the last century. It is through this focus on collaboration that the park will
continue to evolve in a unique and tempered fashion.
Balance
By its very nature and origin, Victoria Park balances competing uses, interests, and
objectives. As the City’s most prominent open space, the park has more pressure than
typical on the types of facilities and uses that the community feels are appropriate. As
made evident through the public consultation process, the park has different values
for different users; each perspective equally valid and important. In moving forward,
Victoria Park must continue to focus on a balanced approach, integrating a mixture of
uses and facilities that meet evolving community needs. This is not to say that the
Park must be everything to everyone, or contain every possible type of facility and
experience, but rather that the long-term management objectives focus on a mixture of
passive and active uses and experiences that are consistent with the community’s vision
for the park.
Sustainability
Victoria Park, as an urban open space, must by its very definition integrate human uses
and needs into its natural setting. As such, there is an inherent need for sustainability,
balancing the demonstrated public desire for a healthy, beautiful, and enduring
natural space. Ongoing management of the park must emphasize both economic and
ecological sustainability, looking at the long-term implications of decisions and not
compromising the community’s vision for short-term objectives.
Adaptability
As one of Canada’s oldest municipal parks, Victoria Park has changed considerably
during its lifespan. Evolving from a more traditional Victorian-era open space typified
by a cricket pitch and a parade ground, the present iteration of the park continues to
focus on a balanced provision of active and passive uses. Over the next century, the
physical form and programming of Victoria Park must continue to adapt and evolve to
reflect changing community demographics and needs. It is important that the park
management goals focus on adaptability, understanding that in order to move forward,
some change is inevitable. By focusing the plan’s intention specifically on the vision of
the community, the park will naturally be able to evolve in a manner that is tempered
and appropriate, as the pace of change will reflect the pace of changing civic needs.
Maintaining an inherent sense of adaptability will ensure the long-term relevance of
Victoria Park in the years to come.
Management Values
Within the broader structure of Victoria Park’s guiding principles exists a framework
of management values that will shape future decisions. These values are linked to
specific strategies that should guide park management, inspire program refinement
and development, and inform the design of renewal or new capital projects.
The management values are summarized in Table 4.1.
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