Consultation? The answer depends on who gets asked

Coun. Lesley Parnell, Peterborough’s co-chair of parks, is keen on the proposed “enhancements” to Bonnerworth Park. The plan, she tells us, “has been in the making for years.” There has been, she says, “unprecedented consultation with recreational groups.”

Good. But what about at least a modicum of consultation with the neighbours? You know, the residents who live in the area.

It seems there was no consultation with them at all prior to a March 21 meeting where proposed plans for a $2-million park “upgrade” were for the first time unveiled for all to see. This included the two ward councillors, Joy Lachica and Alex Bierk. Perhaps it would have been a simple courtesy to give them a quick peek before the meeting?

Bonnerworth is a smallish park, roughly 6.5 acres, bounded by McDonnel Street, Monaghan Road and Bonaccord Street. Abutting to the east are affordable housing units in the old Bonner Worth Woollen Mill, which in 1967 became the first campus of Sir Sandford Fleming College. More residential apartment buildings occupy space along Bonaccord that once provided parking for the college. Directly across Monaghan Road is Marycrest at Inglewood, a 60-unit seniors’ residence.

You pass the park on your right as you drive up Monaghan toward Parkhill Road. A nice splash of green. There are two ball diamonds. They are often occupied, frequently by kids, sometimes wearing team uniforms, sometimes not. There might be a couple of children flying kites. Or a senior walking a dog. It’s a lovely, somehow reassuring, sight.

On the eastern edge is a skateboard park, put in with great fanfare more than 20 years ago. There is no doubt that it needs upgrading.

No one is objecting to that. What the neighbours are objecting to are plans for 16 pickleball courts, with their attendant noise and lighting. They aren’t too happy, either, with an 80car parking lot covering what green space might be left after the ball diamonds go and a cycling track is added. But if there is no parking lot, where are all those pickleball players on their way to tournaments going to park? On residential streets in the neighbourhood?

Many pickleball players argue that the game is not all that noisy. Then, how come neighbouring residents of any community in which a number of contingent pickleball courts are found complain about the “high-pitched and penetrating ” sound? Suggesting perhaps that a multitude of courts, say 16, should not be located together in a residential area, which this increasingly is.

A member of the board of directors of the Peterborough Pickleball Association is quoted as saying that fencing and trees will take care of the noise. Maybe. Maybe not. Parking, noise, and lighting are all planning issues which, if not satisfactorily dealt with locally, could be the basis for a costly appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Sure, skateboarders, bikers and pickleballers were enthusiastic about the plans when they were consulted. The point is they were actually consulted. The residents, on the other hand, having seen the details of the proposal for the first time on March 21, had until Friday to fill out an online survey as to how they feel about it all. Hardly meaningful “consultation.”

You can understand if, having viewed all those pictures and plans at the March 21 meeting, they felt everything was already carved in stone.

When will the city learn how to actually consult rather than simply claim it has consulted?