Work on the first phase of the much delayed Stuart Park may not begin until sometime in 2010.

Design work for the downtown park, named for former Mayor Jim Stuart, began back in 2004.

Design, development and financing of the park was put on hold following a public open house in June 2004, pending the outcome of a private development proposal.

Since the original design was complete, Council extended the boundaries of the park by 15% to include a city-owned parking lot.

The park will extend from the Water Street Senior's Centre south to Queensway.

Park, Design and Construction Supervisor, Andrew Gibbs, says a detailed design and environmental assessment will take until the latter part of this year.

"Once we are done the detailed design towards the end of 2008, we would submit plans to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the first phase of Stuart Park, which would include the environmental assessment for the entire waterfront," says Gibbs.

"We don't know how long it will take for them to get to us, it may be six months it may be 12. When we do hear from them, we would be prepared to immediately go to tender to build the first phase."

Gibbs made the comments while reviewing the Downtown Waterfront Park Plan.

The $18.5 million plan includes Stuart Park, Kerry Park and City Park.

The master plan includes $8.1 million in improvements to City Park, $2.5 million for Kerry Park and $7.9 million for Stuart Park.

While construction of Stuart Park is scheduled to begin sometime over the next two years, Gibbs says reconstruction of City and Kerry parks has not yet been scheduled.

He says construction at Kerry Park will likely be in conjunction with any urban redevelopment that occurs on the edges of the park while it is expected to be several years before anything other than the budgeted erosion protection is undertaken.

An open house to detail the plan is scheduled for Kerry Park on Wednesday, May 28.