There is a possible tempest brewing over the proposed rezoning of Centennial Park in Jasper.

A petition has been circulating along Maligne Avenue, which borders the park, and letter-writing has begun in an effort to persuade Parks Canada to refuse the municipality’s request to rezone the park from an open space zone to an institutional zone.

Resident Harold Schultz, who lives on Maligne Avenue, has been bringing his neighbours’ attention to this possible rezoning. “There was nobody in that whole block [the 700 block] that was in favour of rezoning it, period,” said Schultz.

According to Jurgen Deagle, manager of Municipal and Realty Services for Parks Canada, “what the town asked Parks to do was to consider an application from them to rezone to institutional, which is also a public space land, but allows a lot more development.”

A local planning development advisory committee, which has received and reviewed the letters from concerned citizens, now has to make a recommendation about the rezoning to the director general in Calgary, said Deagle. The Municipality should hear from the director general about the success of their application by the middle of next week, he said.

The application requested that the entire park be rezoned to institutional, which according to Deagle, is “a public space, but development is permitted for community purposes.”

Schultz is concerned that “this is a quiet area... you open the door, how far does it go? The fact of the matter is that this is a green area,” he said. “Someone in that block, whose father has lived here since before 1960, said that originally when the buildings were being constructed in that area, on Maligne Avenue, they were assured by Parks that this Centennial Park area would always remain as it is,” added Schultz.

Deagle is unaware if Parks has looked into this 1960s era “assurance” and said that “we’re going to wait for the recommendation from the planning advisory committee.”

The “primary concern” for Schultz is the “noise issue” and is willing to take his case to Council “if necessary,” but hopes “that it won’t go past this first stage.”