Final Report - City of Charlottetown

CITY OF CHARLOTTETOWN: COMPREHENSIVE WATERFRONT MASTER PLANFinal Report • December 20124.4 Open Space & InfrastructureThe primary and driving component of this master plan is open space. Open space is the fabricand foundation of the plan; the one asset that connects all the projects together and defines thecharacter of the waterfront. The waterfront open space has been broken down into componentparks and urban plazas, linked together by a future pedestrian walkway that provides a continuousconnection from Victoria Park to the Eastern Gateway.Continuous Pedestrian Boardwalk (Victoria Passage)The study team heard loud and clear from the public that a continuous boardwalk from VictoriaPark to the Hillsborough Bridge is desired. The existing boardwalk is one of the gems of thewaterfront and it sees heavy use. While much of the waterfront between the Port and the Deltahotel is accessible by boardwalk, only patchy connections exist south beyond the hotel (with alarge discontinuous segment between the Culinary Institute and Victoria Park) and east from thePort to the Hillsborough Bridge.The trail is currently generically known as the ‘Boardwalk’. Branding the boardwalk is part ofthe formula for securing its eventual continuous success. Halifax has the ‘Halifax Boardwalk’. StJohn’s has the ‘Grand Concourse’. The consultants have gone through a quick branding exercise(see table 4.3) for the boardwalk and recommend that the City adopt the ‘Victoria Passage’ as thename for the waterfront boardwalk. ‘Victoria’ has several references; Queen Victoria (daughterof Prince Edward) for which ‘Victoria Park’ is named, the SS Victoria which brought the Canadiandelegates to the Charlottetown Conference and curiously, ‘Ria’ is a drowned river valley thatremains open to the sea. Victoria Passage is a fitting name for the new waterfront boardwalkwhich will connect Victoria Park to the Hillsborough Bridge and beyond. A more detailed brandingand identity wayfinding study should be undertaken to develop the brandmark in more detail.Once residents see the Passage as more than just a short local boardwalk, they will realize itis part of a comprehensive waterfront multi-use trail system. There will be more support forencouraging the steps needed to create it.424.2Boardwalk Renewal & Expansion