Vibrant

Introduction

Parks and open spaces play an important role in daily life across St. Albert. They support sports, play, trails, gatherings, nature, wellness and connection in all neighbourhoods and across all stages of life. These spaces play an important part in creating healthy, connected and vibrant communities.

As St. Albert continues to grow and change, the City is beginning a broader conversation about how parks and open spaces should evolve to continue meeting community needs now and into the future.

To support that work, the City is undertaking Vibrant: A Plan for Parks and Open Spaces.

About Vibrant

Vibrant is a city-wide planning initiative focused on the parks and open spaces system, moving beyond individual parks and amenities to understand what experiences matter most, and how priorities may differ across the community.

This includes looking at how the collection of trails, sports amenities, playgrounds, courts, open spaces and natural areas work together as a parks system that stretches the entire city, how recreation and community needs may evolve, and how future planning and investment decisions should be approached.

A City-Wide Discussion

Parks and open spaces require ongoing decisions about how to balance different needs over time. The city may need to consider whether to invest in natural areas, trails, play spaces, sports fields, gathering places or environmental stewardship as priorities shift. Not every need can be addressed at the same time, and decisions are rarely made in isolation because one choice often affects another.

Parks and open spaces also serve different purposes across the community. Not every site can support every activity equally at the same time, and priorities may change depending on community needs, available resources and long-term goals.

Vibrant is intended to support a system-level, city-wide discussion about parks and open spaces in St. Albert, helping guide decisions about priorities, investments and the long-term role these spaces play across the community.

Building on Existing Knowledge

The City is not starting from a blank slate. Existing knowledge, previous engagements, accessibility considerations, benchmarking work and parks planning best practices already provide significant insight into how parks and open spaces function across St. Albert.

The purpose of this work is to help inform how those considerations are balanced, prioritized and brought together into a long-term city-wide planning approach for the overall parks and open spaces system.

How You Can Get Involved

Next Steps

Focus groups shared insights around their usage of parks, what makes parks valuable, what detracts from positive experiences and their aspirations for the St. Albert parks system over the long term. Results of those sessions will be used to inform future engagements on the City's parks system.

Please check in fall 2026 for more opportunities to provide your feedback.