No pop-up park at former Mayfair Hotel site in downtown Kitchener

Councillors have decided not to put a pop-up park in empty lot in downtown Kitchener and instead, want to work with the property owner to develop a public art solution.

There are plans by the property's owner to develop the area, but not immediately. So city staff had come up with four ideasforwhat could be done at 11 Young St., where the Mayfair Hotel stood until it was torn down last summer.

• City staff propose pop-up park to fill empty lot in downtown Kitchener
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The four options included doing nothing, putting grass in the space but leaving it up to the owner to care for it, create a pop-up park which would require leveling and paving the lot, or develop a full park.

The pop-up park would have cost upwards of $70,000, staff said in their report, That included buying chairs and planters, which would be removed from the site when it was redeveloped and used elsewhere, as well as levelling and paving the lot. A full park would cost more than $100,000.

Councillors said both options were too expensive.

Explore public art option

City staff had recommended the pop-up park option to provide more space in downtown for events and to beautify the corner of Young and King streets. Currently, the empty gravel lot is fenced off and the Downtown Kitchener BIA has been allowed to store five wooden Christkindl Market huts there.

Councillors said Monday night they wanted to investigate the public art solution to be installed on the existing perimeter of the lot at minimal cost.

If redevelopment of the lot is not "imminent," council may consider paving the lot in 2017 to set up a temporary public space, the city said in a release.