Pickleball park plan in hands of council
Decision on proposal for Bonnerworth Park to be decided Monday night
Chuck Lyon has been living across the street from Bonnerworth Park for 15 years, and every summer he enjoys watching baseball there.
“I love it when the playoffs come around,” he said. “It just invigorates me and makes me feel so good. Especially on a sunny day.”
So it was with dismay that Lyon heard recently that city council plans to remove the two ball diamonds as part of a redevelopment for Bonnerworth Park (at Monaghan Road and McDonnel Street).
The $2-million redevelopment will include an expansion of the existing skateboard area, a new specialized bike track, 16 new pickleball courts and parking.
Construction is planned to begin this fall.
Mayor Jeff Leal said at a committee meeting Tuesday that the idea is to get people active. The mayor further said the location in the park — with its ample space for both courts and parking — is ideal.
Many citizens agree: members of the local skateboarding coalition, for example, and players belonging to the Peterborough Pickleball Association.
But Lyon said he can’t imagine why city council would displace the ball players and spectators.
“For that to up and disappear because they’re going to make a parking lot out of it?” Lyon said. “It’s not right.”
Who will win the pickleball controversy? A decisive council meeting is happening Monday at 6 p.m. that may be the final word.
At that meeting, city council will hear from the public and then
The $2million redevelopment will include an expansion of the existing skateboard area, a new specialized bike track, 16 new pickleball courts and parking
debate and vote a final time on whether to go forward with the plan.
At the general committee meeting Tuesday, councillors gave preliminary approval to stick with the redevelopment after Coun. Joy Lachica had moved to pause and reconsider.
Lachica’s motion arose after concerned neighbours — who’d not been directly consulted about the plan — attended a public meeting March 21 to see a landscape architect’s layout showing 16 courts, lots of parking, and little remaining greenspace.
City council had previously approved the concept in October, but hadn’t seen the layout until March 21.
Lachica’s motion had called for council to pause the plan and rethink it, but it was voted down 8-3 (with Coun. Alex Bierk, Coun. Keith Riel voting alongside Lachica in favour).
Now on Monday, council gets a final chance to ratify that vote.
Some citizens will likely speak strongly in favour of the redevelopment, Monday — and some will have written to councillors to urge them to stick with the plan.
Shelley Moloney, the president of the Peterborough Pickleball Association, posted a letter to players on the group’s Facebook page, earlier this week, asking people to write to councillors to advocate for 16 courts.
She wrote that pickleball “promotes community and socialization and it is a sport that is inclusive to all in that there are multiple entry levels.”
“It is true, the pickleball hitting the paddle does make noise,” Moloney wrote. “However there are many ways in which to mitigate noise that the city can and will be proactive about to ensure harmony in our community.”
Meanwhile Peterborough is producing pickleball champions.
Terry Whelpton, 77, left home in Peterborough earlier this week for the U.S. Open pickleball championship in Naples, Florida, the biggest pickleball tournament in the world.
“It’s like going to Wimbledon or the Masters, for a pickleball player,” he said. “It doesn’t get bigger.”
Whelpton is on his fourth pacemaker, and said he’s feeling healthier and happier since taking up the sport.
“Pickleball has been an inspiration to me and has kept me healthy and kept my weight down — all of which is good for the heart,” he said.
Whelpton said he was “frustrated,” earlier this week, to hear any concern about pickleball noise.
Monaghan Road is busy, he notes — he’s not convinced the pickleball noise will be able to compete with traffic noise.
Meantime, he says many local people are clamouring to play pickleball — and 16 new outdoor courts would help.
“I’m constantly being asked, ‘Where can I join? Where can I take lessons?’” Whelpton said.
But don’t tell that to Rev. Leo Coughlin, who lives in an apartment across from Bonnerworth Park.
He called it “not good ecological care of the environment” to pave over the neighbourhood greenspace.
“I think it’s not a move forward. It’s a regression to the past,” Coughlin said. “It’s a regression from life, from the 21st century — and it is simply unacceptable to me that an enlightened council can’t seen what they’re doing.”
Coughlin’s neighbour, Anne Fischer, says she doesn’t want to see the green space lost, either.
It’s not about pickleball noise for her, she said – it’s about “destroying” a park that has been a community gathering place for years.
Community is key, she said — it should be respected.
“That is the thing that binds us together and makes the world a good place for people to live.”