Regina city council votes to keep Scarth Street Mall pedestrian-only

Aishwarya Dudha · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 10, 2025 5:15 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

After nationalist consultation, polling and debate, Regina's metropolis assembly has decided to support Scarth Street a pedestrian mall, scrapping a connection to let vehicles connected the pedestrian walkway. 

F.W. Hill Mall, commonly called Scarth Street Mall, has been pedestrian-only for astir 50 years, and following a 10-1 ballot connected Wednesday night, metropolis assembly has confirmed that volition continue. 

City officials had astatine 1 constituent projected allowing vehicles and extending postulation onto the cobblestone area. But consultations held last summer suggested astir radical were successful favour of keeping the downtown corridor, betwixt 11th and 12th avenues, a pedestrian-only space. 

The City of Regina released its proposed imaginativeness for the aboriginal improvement of Scarth Street Mall earlier this year, which recommended against re-introducing vehicles.

Council voted successful favour of that proposal Wednesday, with Ward 9 Coun. Jason Mancinelli casting the lone opposing vote.

Getting much radical downtown and making it a harmless and vibrant abstraction has been an contented successful Regina for years, and the Scarth Street program is portion of that, says Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski.

"It fits into … the wide program arsenic we look astatine what does a vibrant downtown look like, what does a walkable, liveable metropolis look like," helium said successful an interrogation connected CBC's Morning Edition. 

In consultations, "people were very, precise wide that they wanted it to beryllium chiefly pedestrian-focused," helium said.

"I'm excited everybody's talking astir it.… Clearly the momentum is there, the tendency to revitalize downtown is there."

Those conversations see students from a University of Regina geography and municipality readying class, who person been moving on design proposals for Scarth Street Mall.

"My biggest happening is parking, which is precise controversial," Katelyn Lipp, 1 of the U of R students, said successful an interview. 

"It's hard to parkland there. They've talked astir determination being a batch of lots, but they're usually full, truthful I conflict with that," she said.

"I besides deliberation that determination is simply a deficiency of nightlife. A batch of my research, we looked astatine the 24-hour city, and I truly wanted to bring that into Regina."

Carter Workman, different student, said the deficiency of a market store and trouble getting to downtown tin marque it harder to entree for youth. 

"I'd similar to spot thing similar we bash with the Rider games, wherever you bash similar a pickup astatine the Southland Mall oregon the Vic Square Mall, and radical tin permission their vehicles, and there's conscionable a autobus that takes radical to and from downtown," helium said. 

Student Britton Perkowitsch said she would similar to spot stores, bars and restaurants on the thoroughfare with ambient lighting, heaters, and patios truthful that radical tin bask the abstraction twelvemonth round. 

Work connected revitalizing Scarth Street goes backmost years, with a tender papers for a consultant issued successful precocious 2022 initially proposing the thought of opening the country to conveyance traffic.

Officials accidental the infrastructure nether the conception of the thoroughfare betwixt 11th and 12th avenues needs to beryllium replaced, which volition mean tearing up the pathway's iconic cobblestones. 

Construction was initially projected to commencement successful 2024, but decisions made during the 2024 fund pushed the enactment back.

Currently, operation is not scheduled to statesman until astatine slightest 2027.