City councillors decided Wednesday not to study the possibility to turn six potential sites in the river valley into permanent beaches.

The candidates were the ‘Accidental Beach’ in Cloverdale and locations near the Fort Edmonton Footbridge, Terwillegar Park, Capilano Bridge, Rundle Park and Big Island. The idea was to narrow the list down to one or two candidates.

City administration determined it would cost up to $2 million, and take between two to four years, to further assess each potential site.

High costs, low attendance

In an attempt to be proactive before the start of the summer, the city made traffic and parking changes in the Cloverdale neighbourhood, and placed portable toilets, bike racks, garbage bins and warning signs at the beach.

But attendance in 2018 never matched the crowds from last summer. According to the administration’s report, the most people to attend in one day is 50.

So city councillors instead decided to focus their efforts on having a more prompt reaction in case there’s another happy accident.