The municipality is hoping for a big turnout this weekend for its visioning workshop on Lots 1 & 9.
"We would love to have a huge turnout," said Mike Kirkegaard, manager of community planning and sustainability for the municipality.
"We recognize that this one is important to the community and we want to give everyone a chance to contribute and participate in defining what the best solution is."
The session this Saturday will be broken into segments, with an information open house from 2 p.m. until 3 p.m., then a presentation by speakers until 3:30 p.m., followed by roundtable workshops until 5:30 p.m.
Kirkegaard said community input would be gathered and recorded. The input will then be used by an advisory committee, which is still being put together, and a consulting team, also under construction.
Last October municipal council voted unanimously in favour of accepting $20 million from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics and finding a way to build the Paralympic arena in the village.
At previous open houses community members saw several ideas for the arena. However, this time the municipality wants to take a broader look at what the land could do for the resort.
"We need to take a step back and ask people what it is they would like to achieve and to see what would make (Lots 1 & 9 ) a great place and then further those concepts," said Kirkegaard.
"This is an important site for the community. It is a community asset and we are looking at defining what the community wants to achieve on this site and looking at ways to take potential advantage of the opportunity for the Paralympic facility at that site.
"We realize that what happens there needs to have broad based community support and we need to develop a vision for that site that the community supports and is proud of."
This workshop will help the municipality understand what the community wants in the area between the Brewhouse and the Health Care Centre and whether plans for an ice arena fit in with that vision.
The results of the event will be brought back before the community in a couple of months when more input will be sought, before finally selecting a plan.
Meanwhile the municipality has interviewed candidates for the position of development manager of the Paralympic sledge hockey arena but no one has been selected yet.
The community-visioning workshop and information session will be held at the Telus Conference Centre in the Sea to Sky Ballroom.
