By Fatima Baalbaki
After a year of public consultations and five different plans, Centretown residents have finally agreed on a design for the redevelopment of Jack Purcell Park and St. Luke’s Park.
Late last month, the City of Ottawa held its fourth public consultation at Jack Purcell Community Centre to hear from residents on the latest plans for the two parks.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes, who attended the consultation, says residents did not have any major objections to the design.
“I think we have a consensus,” she says. “Most people were fairly pleased with the design plan.”
After months of deliberation, residents have decided they want to maintain the status quo in the park in terms of where facilities such as basketball courts are located, says Paul Landry, senior project manager in the city’s parks and recreation department.
“What we have come up with is that we want to upgrade existing infrastructure, improve the pathways, lighting and benches. We will also create a new entrance [for St. Luke’s Park],” he says.
The city will create a new basketball court at Jack Purcell Park. It will also install security barriers around this court and the existing court at St. Luke’s Park to separate them from children’s play areas.
Landry says the other major challenge was balancing the needs of dog owners and other park users. Currently, dogs are allowed to run free at Jack Purcell Park during off-school hours. This is causing concerns about children’s safety and about dog waste being left on the ground.
The solution is a new, segregated dog area along Frank Street where dogs will be allowed off-leash all day.
Landry says although dogs get a smaller space, their owners are pleased with this plan because they will no longer be restricted by a time limit.
The need to redevelop the parks arose two years ago because of a dispute between basketball players and parents after parents complained that older players were allegedly swearing and drinking in the park.
This sparked a debate over the needs of different park users. The city then decided to examine whether the parks were being used efficiently in an area where green space is scarce.
Lee Mullowney, a lawyer who has been playing basketball at St. Luke’s Park for seven years, says he regrets the dispute happened, but that good did come out of it.
“This opened up lines of communications between players and members of the community,” he says. “Now players understand what the issues are, and how they can co-operate with the community to solve them.”
Mullowney says he is pleased the basketball court at St. Luke’s is being preserved. He also welcomes the idea of a new court at the other park because there will be more space for athletes to play basketball.
But resident Diana Babor says she is not happy with the new plans. She lives across the street from both parks and says the sports facilities disturb her.
“The bouncing from the court causes too much noise … with a new basketball court, there will be an increase in the noise. I get baseballs and hockey pucks in my yard because there is no proper netting above the street fence.”
Over the next year, Holmes says the city will meet with individual user groups to plan details like fencing, seating areas and lighting.
The city will determine the cost of the project when these details are decided, and will request the funds from the city’s 2008 budget. Construction will likely begin at the end of 2008 and will be done in stages over a few months.