Memorial makeover $ 8M+
Redeveloping Memorial Park could cost the City of Welland nearly $ 8 million.
If the pool and splash pad at the park on Memorial Park Drive on the city’s east side are replaced, that could drive the price up to $ 10.5 million.
That figure was presented to city Welland councillors Tuesday night during their committee meeting.
But, said Welland facilities manager James O’Neill, not all of the work needs to be done at once, it could be spread out over four to six phases.
O’Neill Tuesday night gave a presentation on the city’s Memorial Park master plan, developed earlier this year with OMC Landscape Architecture, which held consultations with the public and park user groups and used online surveys to gather information.
“Now we have an implementation strategy, how to bring the concepts into a working plan,” said O’Neill.
He spoke about high- priority items, things the public said it would like to see done with the park, labelled as a destination park, used by residents across Welland.
Those high- priority items include the removal of a pond, drainage improvements, fixing parking lots and creating a trail system to connect both sides of the park and area neighbourhoods.
Planting trees and using landscaping to create buffer zones for people whose homes back on to the park would also be carried out.
The cost of the high- priority items, O’Neill told council, would be $ 2 million.
Medium- priority items — such as a change house and bathrooms central to the ball diamond area, a new T- ball or junior baseball diamond, and the relocation of the veterans memorial — would cost $ 2.5 million to carry out.
O’Neill said low- priority items — such as new pavilions, a skating area and expanding existing ball diamonds — would run about $ 1.5 million.
“The pool, the pool building and splash pad have all reached their end of life and have to be replaced at some point,” he said, adding the cost would be about $ 4.3 million.
He said staff have suggested adding a pool utilization strategy in the 2018 capital budget.
“We can study the usage of the pool and the types of people who use it. If we don’t have a lot of people doing lap swimming, we may not need a lap swimming pool. Maybe we could have a larger splash pad.”
O’Neill laid out the various phases and what work would occur in each, but told councillors things could easily be moved around.
Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio said the redevelopment plan looks great and asked O’Neill if there had been any discussions with the developer of a subdivision on the northeast border of the park.
“Are there any expectations from that developer regarding this plan … what they would like to see?” asked Chiocchio.
O’Neill said the developer was consulted but didn’t come to the table with anything it wants to see in the park. He said having the park behind the homes is actually be a benefit when it comes to selling the subdivision lots.
Chiocchio also asked why removing the pond in the park is on the high priority list.
“We have some definite drainage issues that we have to deal with and the pond is part of that. If we build new ball diamonds, they’d have to be in that area and it would have to go anyway,” O’Neill said.
Ward 1 Coun. Mark Carl asked if the demand is there for new ball diamonds.
O’Neill said there was a request for another diamond, adding large tournaments now must be run at two different locations because of the lack of facilities.
Are there any expectations from that developer regarding this plan … what they would like to see?”
Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio
Ward 6 Coun. Bonnie Fokkens asked if an entrance to the park off of Ontario Road would be bicycle- friendly and O’Neill said it would, adding all trails in the park will be walkable and bicycle- friendly.
He said pool costs could come down once the study is complete, and added that leaving parking lots gravel would also lower costs throughout the park.
Fokkens also asked if more pavilions would be added.
“No. There are five in the park that are very well- used. But there is nothing to say we couldn’t have more,” O’Neill said.
Ward 2 Coun. David McLeod asked the facilities manager if he felt there was enough public engagement in the process and if he received enough information.
“Yes, it was good. Our consultants sat down with the user groups and got their input in one- on- one sessions and that had an online survey that a fair number of people responded to,” O’Neill said, adding there were also public input sessions as well that were well- attended.