Morinville should spend about $1 million on trails in three years to meet demands for parks and open spaces, according to a council report.
Town council received a presentation Tuesday night on its new parks and open spaces plan from consultant firm RC Strategies. An open house on a draft of the plan was held on June 15.
Morinville passed its current plan in 2005, said community services director Susan MacDonald, and has gone through plenty of growth since then. Council commissioned the new 10-year plan earlier this year to mesh with its municipal development plan, which is now under review.
This is a long-range blueprint, said Mayor Lloyd Bertschi, and it will be up to future councils to figure out the specifics. The town has done a great job of maintaining its infrastructure over the years at the expense of "nice-to-haves" like parks, and needed to re-invest in them to attract residents that the future North West Upgrader project would bring.
Trail time
The town could have up to 11,600 residents by 2025, according to the report, creating more demand for youth and seniors' activities. About 94 per cent of today's residents make use of the town's parks and trails network.
The report proposes to build about $4.95 million in new parks, trails and facilities over the next six years, including playgrounds, sports fields and baseball diamonds. About $1.1 million of that would be spent in the next three years to upgrade the town's trail network.
The town now has two main trails, according to the report: one along part of 100 Street and another that runs along 100 Avenue and around the town's north boundary, dead-ending at East Boundary Road.
It's a popular network, Bertschi said, "but it doesn't really go anywhere" — there are just a handful of connections between the trails and few full loops.
The plan recommends that the town link the 100 Avenue trail to its north edge one along East Boundary Road, creating a loop. It also calls for another trail down the length of 100 Street to connect downtown to the South Glens subdivision. By 2018, the trail network will have expanded to every neighbourhood in town, with multiple connections between them.
Trails are a cost-effective way to keep people fit, Bertschi said, and are clearly in high demand. "It's certainly something I hope we can push for in the next budget."
The plan also recommends that the town invest about $100,000 to re-landscape St. Jean Baptiste Park in the next three years, and relocate the town's tennis courts at a cost of $383,500. Further in the future, it called for more picnic sites and washrooms at Heritage Lake, more parks and the preservation of woodlots ("nature nodes") along the trail system.
Where's the pool?
The report surveyed about 400 households plus a number of focus groups in the summer of 2010. It found that about 70 per cent of respondents felt that the town's recreational facilities were limited, with some 67 per cent saying the town needed an indoor pool.
Residents have wanted a pool for decades, Bertschi said. "The problem with a pool … [is] we're looking at about a 16 per cent tax increase to build it and about an equal amount in operating costs," he said, not to mention that residents can already zip down to St. Albert and use the pools there. About 75 per cent of town residents used Servus Credit Union Place in the last year, the report found.
Past reports suggest that the town could support its own pool with about 15,000 residents, Bertschi said. The town needed to come up with a long-term strategy to build one, he said, one that would likely involve grants and community support.
Need for youth
The report found residents were dissatisfied with the availability of recreational programs and facilities for youth in Morinville.
Town administration surveyed students last June to try and figure out what local youth needed for recreation, MacDonald said. The town plans to hold a conference on the subject in October.
Council was expected to debate the parks plan after press deadline.
