Galt Gardens Master Plan presented to Lethbridge city council

The City of Lethbridge has money up for grabs through its capital improvement program and George Kuhl, manager of the Heart of Our City committee, wants some of it to re-construct Galt Gardens.

Kuhl presented a conceptual design to city council on Monday. His vision for the park includes new pathways, plazas, art, memorial gardens, water features and enhanced vegetation. It comes with an estimated price tag of over $1 million.

“We wanted the space to be flexible and we realized that there’s some historic elements to the park, so we want to get basically a blend between the traditional and more contemporary,” Kuhl said.

The project would be completed in three phases between 2019 and 2021. Kuhl said with the growing number of living spaces being built in the core, revamping the downtown’s largest green space makes sense.

“We felt that it was important to acknowledge that there will be more people looking for desirable spaces downtown,” he said.  “Not too many apartments will be able to provide their own amenity space, so outdoor amenity space is important.”

Galt Gardens is the oldest park in Lethbridge and hosts several community festivals and gatherings.

Kuhl said safety is always top of mind.

“What we’ve tried to do is eliminate what we call CPTED issues. CPTED is crime prevention through environmental design,” Kuhl said. “By using good design principles, we identify and remove things that might be creating some kind of a safety hazard or something like that.”

Any decisions on funding for the project will be made through council’s Capital Improvement Program, which will be finalized this June.