How much say should residents have in what amenities will go into their local park space? That’s a question councillors will have to grapple with next month.
Coun. Bob Russell is bringing forward a motion April 3 that would see council direct administration to return some of the space in Eldorado Park to residents for spontaneous use activities.
“I don’t think we can specifically tell administration what pieces we want dedicated to specific sports,” he said. “I think now it’s administration’s role to come back (with recommendations).”
Resident Rob Pacholok has been a vocal critic of the years-long process that saw Eldorado Park go from a large open space with potential for a local elementary school to a mostly developed space with a large regional high-school and city-booked soccer fields with no amenities for young children.
“We’ve got two city-booked soccer fields, a little bit of parklands around it, and it’s virtually not usable,” he said. Other than the city-booked soccer fields, there is now less than two acres of green space at the site.
He spoke to council March 6 to pitch what he would like to see the city do to try to make things right for residents, suggesting the soccer fields should revert to use by the school and residents, without other groups being able to book them outside school hours. He said residents would also like to see a playground built in the park, along with tennis courts and an outdoor skating rink.
“Give us a park, or give us what little we have left and turn it into a park,” Pacholok said.
Russell said while he appreciates area residents’ frustrations with what has happened at Eldorado Park, he didn’t think all the proposals they requested could be met.
“I don’t think you can give all the park back to local people, because it wouldn’t happen in any course of events,” he said.
But he did say he felt it would be reasonable to take the smaller of the two soccer fields and turn it back over to community use, and to look at some of Pacholok’s other requests.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said while he appreciated Pacholok’s presentation to council and the requests he made, the city has a New Facility Predictive Model in place to address new-facility needs and capital expenditures. He noted there are also other communities around the city that would also like to see more playgrounds.
Right now, council has prioritized a new ice surface and a new aquatics facility as the most-needed capital expenditures.
“There’s only so much capital to go around, of course,” he said.
Current 10-year capital growth spending projects show the city is facing a potential deficit of more than $300 million if all of the projects currently in the plan are approved.
The facility model takes in a broad range of data, including things number of existing facilities, numbers per capita in comparable cities, demographic growth projections and existing community demand, and makes recommendations on what kinds of new facilities are needed in St. Albert. It’s intended to remove some of the politics from capital decision-making processes.
Development Services manager Gilles Prefontaine said the model is fairly complex, looking at needs in terms of the region as a whole, within neighbourhoods, and also within individual park spaces and making recommendations.
While those recommendations inform council decisions, council does ultimately have the authority to give specific direction, disregarding the model’s recommendations and providing specific direction to administration.
