Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 Mayor Stephen Mandel Edmonton City Councillors

Good Morning Your Worship, Members of Council, With the possible purchase by the City of Edmonton, of MacEwan Universitys west-end arts campus on your agenda for today, wed like to express our support for civic ownership of the building, and its eventual repurposing by the city. We will lose an educational facility, but we may well gain a new and welcomed amenity for the area. Whether its used as an arts incubator, community recreation, programs, and services, space for nonprofits, as available space for the local community and business revitalization, and with what ever manner in which its integrated with a future, adjacent WLRT station - This could well be a valuable asset in the citys possession. If location is everything, then this facility should want for little. Its centrally located, surrounded by four communities with a combined population of over 15,000. Sitting across the street from the Jasper Place transit terminal, Butler Park, and the 100th avenue multi-use trail, makes it easily accessible by all modes of transportation. Its also central amidst the Jasper Place Revitalization, the Stony Plain Road BRZ, and within the core pedestrian area envisioned in the Stony Plain Road Streetscape project. We hope you see the value here - to revitalizing communities, to densifying communities, to communities along the future WLRT corridor, and mature communities that value greatly, the energizing effect of investment in local amenities. As such, we strongly urge you, and encourage you, to make this purchase as part of revitalizing Jasper Place, Stony Plain Road, a future transit corridor, and an area with the potential to be the gateway to downtown, to the west, and a wonderful place to live, work and play.

Sincerely, The Glenwood Community League Executive