Taylor Field left out of catalyst committee plans

While there could be a new arena and library built in downtown Regina and a new aquatics centre on the site of the Lawson Aquatic Centre, there aren’t any plans for any mega-projects to be located at the former site of Taylor Field.

That was according to the City of Regina’s catalyst committee, which made the recommendation earlier this week in the final report it published.

It likely comes as a surprise for some people, as nothing has been done at the site since the football stadium was demolished in 2017.

On Tuesday, Coun. Bob Hawkins explained why the catalyst committee didn’t recommend any of the new projects to be built on the Taylor Field site.

“We know that the environmental studies have to take place (and) they’re just beginning,” Hawkins said. “We know that particularly near the (railroad) tracks there’s going to be some contamination. We have to get to the bottom of that.

“I would suggest that when the RRI (Regina Revitalization Initiative) was brought forward in 2011, it was intended to sequence a stadium. And it wasn’t about a commercial development, it was just about building a stadium and I think that was part of our learnings,” added Tim Reid, the president and CEO of Regina Exhibition Association Limited and a member of the committee.

“We built this great stadium, but we didn’t talk about how it catalyzed things.”

While that vision was adopted in 2011 by city council, the former Taylor Field location was meant to become a place that would provide mixed-income housing options for purchase and rental. But according to the City of Regina’s website, a plan was never adopted by council to do such a thing.

Also on its website, the city says a Taylor Field neighbourhood servicing and planning evaluation will begin in 2023 and is part of the Land Development Master Plan.

“The sequencing was essentially that we would develop the (rail)yards and then Taylor Field and so because of that, we haven’t done the environmental assessments at Taylor Field,” Reid said.

“Through this process, what we did learn is the historical use suggests there was a freon factory and a creosote factory on those lands. Now that sounds really bad, but they’re easy to isolate. But we just don’t know. Our recommendation is go punch some holes, understand what the soil conditions are right away and decide how we advance it. But we don’t know and that was a challenge in part of some of our decisions.”

While that cleaning up process has to take place, Reid suggests building an aquatic centre at the current Lawson Aquatic Centre site could help spur growth in that area.

Reid adds once that’s done and it’s safe to do planning and building, they can do that.

“I want to be really clear: There is nothing in those lands that is stopping us from building a pool or mixed-use commercial development,” he said. “It’s just that the cost of that is uncertain right now.”