Edmonton’s High Level Line park project moves slowly ahead, lowers funding request to city

The times may be tough, but that’s not stopping an ambitious idea from moving forward, incrementally.

“At a high level we have a sense of what needs to happen, who needs to do what,” Kevin Dieterman, from the High Level Line Society said.

The High Level Line is a proposed 4.3 kilometre linear park between Oliver and Old Strathcona, using top deck of the High Level Bridge to connect the two sides.

Initially, the group was seeking $500,000 to continue work on the project.

On Tuesday, a city hall committee learned the ask was significantly scaled back to $85,000.

“It was pretty clear the writing was on the wall that half a million isn’t going to happen,” Dieterman said.

The city thinks it can find the funds for the new request from a community benefit agreement connected to a recently-approved development in Oliver.

Longer term, should the project move ahead, organizers see an example in the previous campaign to light up the High Level as a way to get community buy in.

“We’re open to talking with any partners,” Dieterman said.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson believes that, “for a few bucks, we can really explore them and see whether there’s philanthropic support and leverage there.”

Even if the project goes ahead, there are still questions about how the linear park would work on the top deck of the High Level, which currently sees streetcars moving back and forth between each May and October.

“It’s mainly around safety and mixing pedestrians and streetcars,” explains Chris Ashdown with the Edmonton Radial Railway Society.

Park proponents suggest a solution can be found, adding the full vision of the linear park will “occur over many number of years.”

The request on the funding will be determined in the spring.