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All of which raised the question: Would reopening Sparks to motor vehicles help revitalize the moribund pedestrian mall?

A National Capital Commission‘s advisory committee appears to think it could.

The advisory committee on planning, design and realty — composed of experts in real estate development, planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture — provided feedback last year on a Public Works and Government Services Canada demonstration plan for properties along the south side of Wellington and the north side of Sparks streets between Elgin and Bank streets.

The demonstration plan is part of an urban design master plan developed by Public Works that provides a vision, guiding principles and design guidelines for the redevelopment of the three blocks over the next 50 years.

According to draft minutes of its meeting in February 2014 released to the Citizen under access to information, the advisory committee made several suggestions following a presentation on the demonstration plan. The most striking was to examine the reintroduction of vehicular traffic “in order to animate” Sparks Street.

It’s hardly the first time someone has raised the idea since the street was permanently closed to vehicular traffic in 1967.

“My understanding is pretty much ever since they closed the street, they’ve been thinking about reopening it in some form or another,” says Kevin McHale, event and programming co-ordinator for the Sparks Street BIA.