An open house and information night was held earlier this week for members of the Glen Elm community about the re-development of the old trailer park. What was once a place with 158 homes and around 300 people now sits empty. The project is bringing much needed updates to the water and sewage systems for the area, which was cited as the reason for the trailer park’s eviction in the first place. Once the infrastructure is completed, the site is proposed to be a combination of townhouses and apartment buildings. The change to higher density living will result in the population of the neighborhood to increase from 300 as a trailer park to approximately 1,000 as multi-faceted housing. “It’s a big change for the neighbourhood. A lot more housing and a lot of new construction in the area. So we are letting people know what the impacts to their neighborhood are so they are well informed on what is going on,” Regina’s Manager of City Planning Ben Mario said. There are a handful of residents remaining in the lone portion of the trailer park that has remained untouched due to it being on separate water and sewer lines. The separate water and sewer lines were due to the relocation of part of the trailer park in the 1970s during the construction of Ring Road. One such resident is Randall Edge, who said he has a positive view on the community’s future. “As a resident, I’m actually finding myself in support of this proposal,” he said. However, there is one issue Edge see becoming larger with the new development. Parking. There has been plenty of consideration for upgrading the water systems for an increase in population but not for the already strained street parking. “If we move from 300 to 1,000 residents, boy we’re going to be having some issues with street parking for guests. So maybe a little more consideration could be put in that area,” Edge said. There are senior homes and multi-storey apartment buildings already in the area that use the streets as guest parking, as only 1.5 parking spaces are needed per apartment unit as standard practice. For now, Glen Elm’s new look is in its early days of planning. The applications for the development still need to go through public and technical reviews and the Regina Planning Commission.
