Many community groups will be anxious to see the recommendations of how three parcels of downtown public land might be utilized in the future.

All three parcels are highly sought locations and exactly what the tri-site committee recommends will be revealed on Tuesday, Nov. 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cochrane Lions Event Centre,109-5 Ave.

Susan Flowers, town councillor and committee chair, encourages all interested residents to attend the drop-in event and they have already sent invitations to over 150 community groups. There will be high-level artist concepts of the possibilities as well as the background on the ideas.

Tomorrow is a final wrap-up meeting of the committee before they go to the public.

"It's close," says Flowers. "We have one more meeting tomorrow night (Nov. 21) to prepare for the open house and then we'll be ready to go."

Feedback received next Tuesday will be given consideration before the committee presents its recommendations to town council on Dec. 10.

"The committee will look at the feedback and see if there was anything we recommend that is out of line and we'll consider good comments containing ideas we hadn't thought about. Then we'll tweak it and it goes to council."

There were 50 types of uses that came forward to the committee to review. They had a criterion that used nine different filters to determine who needs to be downtown, says Flowers. Emphasis was placed on sharing sites for needs with compatible uses.

Flowers says she's impressed with the work of the committee 

"The timelines were short, so it is high-level information but I think the committee has done really good work at considering every use and considering things that are adaptable. They not only thought about tomorrow but way into the future."

She was surprised there was a consensus on one concept.

"I really thought for sure we'd have three or four different concepts but they all agreed on one. They were able to come to terms with consensus on one concept so that's really exciting. The group's been really positive and really caring about the community and the future of the downtown core as we grow and change."

It is a long-term plan and will take time to unfold.

"We can't do it all at once so we'll have to determine what makes sense to do first and develop a long-term plan."

"We have some ideas on quick things we can start where grants available. So whatever makes sense we'll proceed with first."

The largest property in question is the 5th Ave. land, 15.13 acres, that has been home to the Cochrane Lions Rodeo Grounds for over 50 years, the Cochrane Lions Event Centre (former curling rink), Cochrane's two largest ball diamonds and the Boys and Girls Club of Cochrane and Area. It also housed the Big Hill Leisure Pool that was demolished late last year.

There's also a one-acre site adjacent to the Nan Boothby Memorial Library Building (Cochrane Public Library) on Railway St. and across the street is a 1.71 acres parcel the town originally purchased to serve as a transit hub.