Kitchener plans offer to buy land to double size of south sports park

KITCHENER — The City of Kitchener plans to put in an offer to buy land and almost double the size of its planned South District Park.

The city already owns a 17-hectare (42-acre) land parcel at the southwest corner of Huron Road and Fischer-Hallman Road that it is beginning to develop as a new district park for the burgeoning southwest suburbs.

So when city staff heard that the Waterloo Region District School Board was planning on selling a 14-hectare parcel right next to the park site, they jumped at the chance to expand the park.

“I think it’s a great opportunity, if our bid is successful,” said Kim Kugler, Kitchener’s director of sport.

The city has begun design work for the new park, which is slated to open in the spring of 2019 with a playground, splash pad, football field and a double soccer field and cricket pitch. The extra land, if the purchase is successful, would make the South District Park the city’s largest sports park. Breithaupt is currently the largest district park at 29.6 hectares.

Acquiring more land for the South District Park would also help address another problem.

“We know we need a longterm strategy for replacing the sports property at Budd Park,” Kugler said. The city wants to revert Budd Park back to industrial use over the next few years, to boost its dwindling supply of industrial land. Budd Park currently has six soccer fields, two lit ball diamonds, tennis courts and an indoor facility used for soccer and other sports.

Having the extra parkland in the South District Park would allow the transition away from Budd Park to be much smoother, with less disruption for users, Kugler said.

The large size of the lot that’s for sale means the city could relocate all the Budd Park facilities, instead of having to parcel them out to a number of smaller sites, she said.

Having one much larger park brings some efficiencies in terms of staffing and equipment as well, Kugler said. In the short term, however, the extra land would mostly be used for trails and access roads, she said.

The province has clear rules for how school boards can dispose of surplus lands, specifying that other school boards have priority, followed by several other public bodies. The City of Kitchener would be ninth in the priority list. Interest from other public bodies may be limited, however, because there are restrictions on what could be developed on the site.

The Waterloo Region District School Board bought the land about 20 years ago to build a new high school to serve the booming suburbs. But the site ended up outside the countryside line drawn by Waterloo Region to contain development, so not much is allowed to be built there.

“Regional and provincial policies now encourage intensification instead of greenfield development, which is why we can no longer use this land to build a school,” said school board spokesperson Lynsey Slupeiks.

A park is one of the uses allowed on the land.