Moncton residents discuss Downtown Centre colour, parking

Moncton residents had the opportunity to share their ideas for the new $107 million Downtown Centre on Wednesday night and it was parking that generated the most discussion.

The plans for the new 9,000-seat arena to be built on the former Highfield Square site on Main Streetdo not include a parking lot. Instead, people who want to drive to the venuewill have to park in one of the 3,000 public and private parking spots in the downtown.

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Resident Julian Howatt attended the public session, in part to show his support for that decision, and says many others he spoke to agreed.

"My generation, I'm 31, we're not as keen on driving, we'realotmore interested in the alternatives," he said in an interview on Information Morning Moncton.

"Owning a car is expensive so being able to take the busor walk or bike...those options are on the table and that was encouraging."

StephaneThibodeau, transportation coordinator for the City of Moncton,says ideas shared by residents at the meetingwere positive.

"One of the ideas was free transit for every ticket you buy and the other one is bike lockers for the facility so great suggestions."

Howatt says people are obsessed with their vehicles and with parking, and he is happy to see a move away from that.

He pointed out that having an event centre downtown will change the behaviour of people who currently arrive at theMoncton Coliseum just before an event and leaveimmediately after.

"Because this will be located downtown a lot of people were saying, 'Before the game I'll go out and eat just a five minute walk away or after the game I might stop by and do something else,' so people will be trickling in andtricklingout as well... it's not going to be a rush to get to the game at 7o'clockand then everybody leaves at 9 o'clock."

Other suggestions included improvingpedestrian access to the parking lots that already exist within a 10-minute walk of the Downtown Centre.

Consensus on colour of building difficult

Howatt says the colour of the Downtown Centre proved to be the most difficult topic for residents who turned out for the public session to agree on.

In the designs, the exterior of the building includes boldverticalstrips of bright green, red and blue.

We are discussing colour options and how people feel about colour, what's colourful enough, too colourful, timeless, all these questions are coming up.- Rob Bateman

"Everybody has a different opinion on what the buildingshould looklike in terms of colour... and that's where there was a bit more of a challenge," Howatt said.

Rob Bateman, an architect withStantec Architecture, says the footprint of the building and the building materials areset but there is still the option of changing the colours.

"We are discussing colour options and how people feel about colour, what's colourful enough, too colourful, timeless, all these questions are coming up," he said Wednesday night.

One of the suggestions residents considered was usingdifferent coloured lights to illuminate the outside of the building rather than going with a permanent colour.

Bateman says the colour of the interior of the building, which has a very contemporary design, was also discussed..

"There is a heritage aspect to this, so do we want a more heritage bent to the design when you first walk into the lobby space," Bateman said.

Howatt says for him the public session was a good experience, and he felt that the suggestions of residents were heard and will shape the final product.

The ideas from the public sessionwill be presented tocity council in the new year.