Some neighbours feeling ‘outrage’ over park plan
Bonnerworth proposal calls for 16 pickleball courts, bike track
John Gerelus sees plenty to love about Bonnerworth Park.
The park at Monaghan Road and McDonnel Street is in the heart of his neighbourhood. People use the skateboarding space, ball diamonds and tennis courts — and Gerelus says they use the vast lawn, too.
“You know — tossing a football, throwing a Frisbee, walking the dog, flying a kite,” he said. “That green space is needed here.”
That’s why Gerelus says he and his neighbours felt “outrage” at a public meeting March 21 where they learned the city’s planning 16 pickleball courts, a bike track and an expansion of the existing skateboard area, for Bonnerworth Park.
Several people have previously told city council they’re delighted with the plans. But Gerelus and his neighbours say they were never consulted before city council approved the plan in October — and now they’re facing the loss of green space.
With construction about to start in the fall, area residents would like a word with councillors.
“We want the project stopped,” Gerelus said.
By Tuesday, the date of the next city council meeting, it may become clear whether council wants to pause (or change) the project.
Bonnerworth Park is in Town Ward, and ward councillors — Coun. Joy Lachica and Coun. Alex Bierk — say they’ve heard the neighbours’ concerns.
“We recognize the scope of the outcry and agree on the points that are raised,” Lachica said in an
interview this week. “And we are fervently advocating for alternatives to what was presented.”
That may give rise to a motion at the committee meeting Tuesday, however Lachica said she couldn’t offer any more details in the meantime.
But hold on a second, say some who were looking forward to the plans — Bonnerworth Park held promise of new recreation opportunities.
Judy Byrne, who’s on the board of directors for the Peterborough Pickleball Association, said a redeveloped park will be enjoyed like never before.
“It’s a huge improvement to the neighbourhood, to our city, for the people that live in the city,” she said in an interview.
Dan Post, chair of the nonprofit Peterborough Skateboard Coalition, sees it that way too. In an email this week, Post said the group has been advocating “for years” for new skateboard facilities that are more inclusive and accessible for people of varying skill levels.
“Our concern is that opposition to the Bonnerworth project as a whole threatens the skate park component we have worked so hard to secure,” he said.
Bonnerworth Park, located at 550 McDonnel St., has four tennis courts, a 20-year-old skateboard facility, two ball diamonds and green space.
City council is planning a $2-million redevelopment in 2024 that will see it transformed. Under the plan, tennis courts are relocating to Knights of Columbus Park (on Park Street North), and the pickleball courts there will move to Bonnerworth.
Coun. Lesley Parnell, the parks co-chair, said it’s going to be a recreational “hub” meant for the entire city, and that the plan has been in the making for years. It sprung from the municipal recreation master plan, which examined every aspect of planning for outdoor sports and activities.
An “unprecedented” amount of consultation with recreational groups went into that master plan, Parnell said, and into the subsequent Bonnerworth plan — both of which were unanimously approved by city council in the fall.
But both Coun. Lachica and Coun. Bierk say new information has emerged since then. For example, Bierk said that the layout of the new Bonnerworth Park, as designed by landscape architects, was shown to him for the first time at the public meeting March 21.
“I never expected the pickleball and parking to take up so much space,” he said, in an email. “I think that a lot of us were taken off-guard.”
Lachica said the “community outcry” is new too.
The neighbours need to be heard, she said, and that may include concerns about noise generated by pickleball.
But Parnell said fences and trees are expected to help, and Pickleball Association director Byrne agreed.
Byrne used an analogy to explain; in a “cavernous” house, she said, drapes and carpeting are often installed to absorb noise.
“It’s the same thing with pickleball. We’re going to be putting trees all around it,” she said.
Amy Handyside, who lives nearby on Bonaccord Street, said she’s “not that person” who would “automatically” object to the sounds of pickleball, but she wonders whether other neighbours will be bothered.
Residents should have been asked, she explained.
“I just don’t think the city’s done its homework,” Handyside said. “I feel like we (the neighbours) got engaged too late.”
Gerelus said that at the meeting March 21, he was asked by a city councillor (whom he didn’t name) whether he simply didn’t want pickleball in his backyard.
“I said, ‘Well, exactly. Not in anybody’s backyard,’” Gerelus said. “It doesn’t belong in a residential area.”
But Parnell said there were enthusiastic supporters at the March 21 meeting, too.
Byrne said the redeveloped park is “going to look beautiful.”
“You’re going to make a huge difference in the community overall.”