Glenmore park to get work
Central Green, Mission rec centre downgraded, city’s capital plan says
More than $3 million worth of work will be done next year on Glenmore’s long-awaited recreation park.
But the scheduling of construction at Rowcliffe community park at Central Green has been bumped back a year, and plans to replace the artificial turf at Mission recreation park have been given a lower priority.
These are among the most notable changes to the City of Kelowna’s 10-year capital plan, to be considered today by council.
Just over $1 billion in spending is forecast in the 10-year capital plan, with the biggest cost drivers being the airport ($259 million), transportation ($199 million), and city-owned buildings ($148 million).
Funding is to come from a combination of taxes, reserves, borrowing, development cost charges, and grants from other governments.
In June, an earlier version of the capital plan was presented to council that did not include any new money for development of Glenmore recreation park, at the corner of Valley Road and Longhill Road.
More than $2 million has been spent getting the site ready for development, with projects such as underground utility servicing, internal road design, fencing, drainage and landscape buffering.
Projected amenities for the park include a two-storey indoor activity centre, sports fields, skateboard park, tennis and pickleball courts, basketball courts, a children’s water park, walking trails, and open lawns.
Since 1989, the city has had the intention of developing a major recreation park in Glenmore.
The idea has been part of every official community plan since 2000, but but it wasn’t until 2011 that a site was settled upon.
To free up money for the park’s development, a planned $1.7 million extension of the downtown Art Walk has been downgraded in priority. The $850,000 replacement of the artificial turf at Mission recreation park has been postponed, and phase three of Rowcliffe park’s development, at a cost of $900,000, will happen in 2020 rather than next year.