SPC recommends roadway name change

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 2, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber The Civic Works Standing Policy Committee of city council will be recommending that Exhibition Way be used as the name of a north/south portion of Parkside Drive.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

A portion of Parkside Drive may soon have a new name in honour of the Lethbridge Exhibition.

The Civic Works Standing Policy Committee of city council will be recommending that Exhibition Way be used as the name of a north/south portion of Parkside Drive that passes in front of the new Agri-Food Hub under construction.

The SPC consists of chair and Acting Mayor Belinda Crowson, vice-chair councillor Nick Paladino and councillors John Middleton-Hope and Ryan Parker. Paladino was absent from the meeting.

Senior subdivision planner Janet Gutsell gave a presentation to the SPC.

The SPC was told the curved roadway configuration for Parkside Drive “has resulted in an ad hoc approach to the addressing of City assets in Henderson Park and on the Exhibition site over the years. With the redevelopment of the Exhibition site and building a new facility, an influx of addressing requests for construction permitting exposed this ad hoc approach and a lack of numerically sequential available addresses.”

Administration proposed to the Exhibition that renaming the section of roadway that passes the east end of Henderson Lake as an option to update addresses moving forward.

Gutsell said stakeholders including the Exhibition and Canada Post were consulted about the proposal.

The cost of the change will be about $2,000 for new signs, Gutsell told the SPC.

In response to a question from Middleton-Hope, the planner said the term “Way” was chosen over “Drive” because roads with the latter name tend to be longer.

On Wednesday, Exhibition chief executive officer Mike Warkentin said “this is actually an initiative that came out of some of the logistical planning around the building (the new Agri-food Hub under construction). When we were approached about this, this was such an important piece to maintain the legacy of this organization at this site which goes back over a hundred years to when this site was developed for the World Dry Farming Congress in 1912.

“The Exhibition not only has played an important role here on Parkside Drive but also in the community and the region as a whole.”

“We couldn’t be more honoured to be part of that and quite frankly we hope it goes forward so that regardless of the future of events and programming and what that looks like, the Exhibition’s legacy that it’s had in the community lives on,” said Warkentin.

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