The Town of Devon (the Town) manages natural areas, including sports fields, roadway green space, decorative parks, and natural environment parks.
Each year, the Town also inspects and assumes responsibility for managing newly acquired property such as the recently annexed land. In the past, the Town has used varied pest control techniques, and Town Administration recognized the need for a formal policy and set of procedures for Town-wide use to control pests. An integrated pest management (IPM) Plan is a living document that acts as a foundation for current operational, planning, and technical pest control activities; but as a living document, it requires ongoing development and refinement
This IPM Plan is intended to have numerous functions:
The IPM Plan provides detailed information on how to prevent and manage pests on lands within the Town.
Click here to see the full Integrated Pest Management Plan.
See the full Parks, Culture & Recreation Master Plan here!
Community engagement session were held February 20 and 21, 2015. Here's what community has told us so far: PCRMP Interim Report
Recreation contributes to vibrant and engaged communities. It fosters personal, social, economic, and environmental well-being.
In Devon, recreation is an essential community service as it adds to our quality of life, strengthens relationships, contributes to our sense of belonging, provides opportunities to participate for those who are less fortunate, stimulates the local economy, and protects the environment.
More than sport, recreation includes a broad range of artistic, creative, cultural, intellectual, physical, and social activities which “make leisure time more interesting, enjoyable and personally satisfying”. (Interprovincial Sport and Recreation Council, 1987.)
Purpose of the master plan
Ultimately, the Devon Master Plan seeks to: maximize the quality of life in Devon by working with its citizens to ensure a community-driven, future focused direction for parks, culture, and recreation.
As a result, we are using a community development approach that will prioritize the engagement of a wide variety of stakeholders engaged and “owning” the process.
While Town staff and some outside expertise are being engaged, they are focused on (1) designing a citizen-driven process that will allow for the co-creation of a Master Plan and (2) gathering data and information that will be needed to help stakeholders make informed decisions. For instance, information related to demographics, trends, opportunities, etc.
Steps 1 - 5: Ensure Engagement 1. Ignite and invite others to participate 2. Share strengths and successes 3. Research your community 4. Define priorities 5. Engage others who need to be involved
Steps 6 – 8: The Traditional Approach 6. Define vision, values and priorities 7. Describe purpose 8. Identify outcomes
Steps 9 – 10: After the Plan 9. Develop strategies and take action 10. Learn, celebrate, and tell the story
Service Excellence data collection is complete A master plan planning framework has been developed A communications plan has been developed The phone survey is complete Literature review and research has been undertaken of other municipal recreation plans, national and provincial initiatives, best practices, and future recreation trends, analytical processes Dates have been set for stakeholder & community engagement
Conduct the community engagement sessions Recreation trends research Analyse and interpret results Develop concept plans for parks & open spaces Conduct internal meetings Prepare draft master plan
Associated Environmental Consultants Inc. (Associated) was retained by the Town of Devon to conduct a Condition Assessment and Site Prioritization (the study) to identify opportunities to mitigate erosion and build resilience into the floodplain by restoring degraded areas. The assessment was conducted as part of the Watershed Restoration and Resilience grant program. The study area includes the North Saskatchewan River Valley located within Devon, AB, with a primary focus on the floodplain associated with the North Saskatchewan River and Battery Creek as well as the adjoining river valley slopes.
Click HERE to view the River Valley Master Plan.
Devon council voted on October 27, 2014 to table river valley trail discussions, after citizens expressed concerns that the paving of the River Valley Alliance (RVA) primary trail network was not properly communicated during recent River Valley Trails Master Plan (RVTMP) public engagement sessions. The section of trail under discussion, an old Imperial Oil road, runs from Voyageur Park to the Lion’s Park and has been identified as a primary trail within the RVA network that will eventually link Devon to Fort Saskatchewan. Although there have been ongoing communications regarding the RVA trail project, the RVA primary trail standard, defined as a 3 metre wide, hard surface trail, was not clearly understood.
Please follow this link to read the full River Valley Trails Media Release.
Download: River Valley Trails Master Plan - Final Report - November 2015
Updates will be provided online as well as Facebook and Twitter #rivervalleytrails.
The Town of Devon completed and released the River Valley Trails Master Plan Final Report in November 2015. The purpose of the River Valley Master Plan (RVMP) is to establish a coordinated vision and long term development plan for Devon's river valley. The process of developing the RVMP began in spring of 2010 and included feedback from town administration and public consultation sessions where groups identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the Devon river valley.
The report recommended preparing a trail routing plan for the valley slopes, developing a trail signage program, and conducting an assessment of the trails to determine user needs as well as trail condition reports and erosion controls. The River Valley Trails Master Plan was the next step in this process.
The River Valley Trails Master Plan is intended to guide the sustainable maintenance and future development of a multi-use trail system. The plan will be responsive to the desired experience and abilities of trail users. It will support current and future use with minimal impact to the area ecosystem, produce negligible soil loss, and will allow vegetation to inhabit the area.
The Master Plan provides guidelines and standards to ensure that we are developing the most accessible, usable, and sustainable trails possible in order to meet a variety of user abilities and desired experiences. This plan will guide future trail remediation, expansion, and preservation efforts. This plan is focused on the natural trail system in the river valley. It will ensure the development of a network of multi-use trails that will be accessible and usable by everyone, for all activities and skill levels.
"Urban forestry is the sustained planning, planting, protection, maintenance, and care of trees, forests, green space and related resources in and around cities and communities for economic, environmental, social, and public health benefits for people."
- Canadian Urban Forest Network
Trees are one of the most visible and significant assets in the Town of Devon. Council asked that an all-encompassing plan be created for the management of trees as they represent a substantial investment for the community.
The Urban Forest Management plan brings together Devon’s existing documents such as the design standards, level of service and policies all into one document and addresses:
Follow this link to read the full document: 2015 Urban Forest Management Plan
The Town of Devon has retained the services of a professional environmental planning firm to develop a concept plan for the redevelopment and upgrade of amenities at Voyageur Park. To help create this concept plan and recommendations for park upgrades, the design team is engaging local residents and other project stakeholders to ensure public input is gathered and used to shape the final concept plan.
Four draft concept plans were created by EDS Group and shared with residents/stakeholders through the Town website, social media, newspaper and a public open house in early August. Feedback was then gathered through both a form on the Town website and an online survey to determine what residents liked about each draft concept plan to inform the final draft plan.
Voyageur Park Improvement Plan
Voyageur Park Improvement Signage Plan