Guelph-Eramosa council has approved a $5.3-million master plan for the expansion of Rockmosa Park in Rockwood.
At the Dec. 7 meeting, council approved the 12-project plan developed by IBI Group, which meets a number of recommendations contained in the township’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan of 2013, including:
– meeting the skating and ball hockey demand in the township;
– a perimeter walking trail;
– providing two full-sized soccer fields and four mini intermediate soccer fields;
– pursuing a skatepark;
– creating an off-leash dog park;
– and providing a toboggan hill and and accessible space.
“The challenge really was, it’s a long list of facilities, how do we make them all fit?” explained IBI representative Scott Arbuckle. “And how do we accommodate the desires of most people in as much as we can.”
About two years ago the township acquired 21.4 acres of land west of the existing Rockmosa Park, which will be the site of the expansion.
“When you look at the available lands inside the urban border this is it,” Mayor Chris White said. “We could have just sat back and let a developer turn that into houses; you would have been stuck with that 10 acre park and that would be it.
“Part of what we’re trying to do is do something that’s good and for the future … I think the community will be well served by this and we’re trying to accommodate all demographics.”
Community engagement
The township hosted a number of community engagement exercises between August and November, seeking input for potential park designs. Over 200 online surveys were completed in the park initiation stage.
“Common concerns raised about the existing park focused primarily on the poor condition and availability of (on-site parking), limited access to the tennis facilities, condition of and access to concessions and washrooms and the availability and frequency of winter activities…” states the IBI report.
The public survey and other public input sessions identified park priorities taken into consideration in the development of three potential layouts.
“We’ve seen a lot of this before, but just to reiterate people … want it to be a family-friendly space frequently used, encompassing of the community as a whole, beautiful, peaceful,” said IBI representative Tiffany Brule. “These are all things that we know Rockmosa needs to be.”
After receiving further public comment, the IBI team created a preferred master plan considering input from the community and council.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job at understanding what the needs of the community are and kind of where they want to go in the future with this park,” Brule said.
The preferred concept was broken down into 12 projects, with council deciding if, how, when, and in what order to proceed. Brule noted that if multiple projects can be completed at one time there would be cost savings.
Existing facilities, such as the Rockwood library, an enabling garden, tennis courts, community centre, Early Years centre, splash pad, playground, baseball diamond, batting cage, washroom facility and covered pavilion will all remain in the park, the IBI report stated.
Project one
The first step is grading, servicing and storm water management of the expansion lands, at an estimated cost of $875,000. This will include importing fill for the toboggan hill, installing an irrigation system and benches for multi-purpose fields, as well as topsoil and hydroseed.
“Our recommendation is to put in as much conduit and things for future uses as possible because you’ll save in the long run,” Brule said. “It’s a high estimated cost because there’s so much dirt moving involved and importing of soils.”
There are five multi-purpose Sports fields (of three sizes) in the master plan, which “does allow soccer, it allows cross use in multiple soccer games, it allows football, you could play cricket on the thing if you felt like it, it’s big enough,” Arbuckle said.
White said with the amount of proposed fields and facilities the township could begin hosting soccer tournaments and bring revenue to Rockwood’s downtown.
“A situation where we’ve got a community like Rockwood, which is very family oriented … with 750 kids in soccer, it’s one of the services we provide,” he said.
A large component of the cost for the Sports fields is covered by development charges collected from new residential growth over the last five years, said parks and recreation director Robin Milne.
Project two
The next project is the resurfacing of Christie Street and the entrance of Rockmosa Park, estimated to cost $410,000.
This project will include construction of an entrance trail, resurfacing of Christie Street, reconstruction of the parking behind the community centre, new parking beside the community centre, correction of drainage issues at the baseball diamond and tree planting.
Project three
Construction of the skate park is expected to cost $350,000, including geotechnical and engineering plans, public consultation.
Project four
The construction of a main trail at the park is pegged at $150,000. The project will involve an asphalt trail, installation of benches and tree planting.
Project five
The construction of parking lots, including over 450 spots, is expected to cost $450,000, including plans, construction of lots along the future road, construction of trails that lead to the parking area, improvements to the existing soccer field and tree planting.
“Our initial assessment of the pedestrian-vehicular relation was there were a lot of conflict points, so we tried to reduce those conflict points as much as possible and make vehicles in one space and pedestrians in the other space,” Brule said.
Currently there are 140 parking spaces adjacent to the community centre; with the new plans there will be 157.
“There was some concern that by the trees going in we were losing parking, but the fact is we’re actually adding parking, you’re just making it safer specifically for Rockmosa,” White said.
Project six
The construction of a dog park is expected to cost $85,000, including the installation of fencing, parking beside the park and tree planting.
One of the complaints received in the early stages of consultation was that the dog park was either too big or too small, Brule said.
“From our research, two and a half acres … is the right number … ” Brule said. “In terms of municipal standards all across Canada, that’s kind of the right size and that’s what we’ve accommodated in this plan.”
Project seven
is expected to cost $1.8 to $2.5 million. It will include washrooms and the installation of an outdoor ice surface with a chiller unit and boards.
“One of the things that everybody always asks for is an arena or a pool,” White said. “They’re hugely expensive.”
Though an indoor rink and pool are not within the master plan at this time the ideas aren’t off the table if additional funding comes in, White clarified.
“Nobody should be under the impression that it can never be done,” he said. “Just based on the land we have today and the money we have, this is what we’re going to do.”
The covered outdoor rink with lights and boards proposed can double as a market and community gathering place in the summer.
As for a pool, White said the township could look into a partnership with the Upper Grand District School Board and the Grand River Conservation Authority.
“I think the ideal scenario would be to drop the pool on Falls Street between the school and the conservation area,” he said. “Conservation people could use it in the summer because not a lot of people like to go in the cold water.
“The school could teach kids how to swim, which they don’t do anymore …”
Projects eight to ten
Other projects included in the master plan are the installation of:
– a destination playground for an estimated $125,000;
– five exercise stations for a cost of $30,000; and
– a playgound for younger children for a cost of $30,000.
Project 11
The second to last project on the list is the installation of Sports field lighting for $200,000.
“We highly recommend that lighting is incorporated in the Sports fields for a number of reasons,” Brule said. “It extends the play life, allows for more programing and you can use it kind of earlier in the season and later in the season.”
Project 12
The final project on the list is the installation of toboggan hill and park lighting.
“There’s little light standards kind of all throughout the park,” Brule said.
“Both on the trail and for Sports field lighting and there’s also light standards on the toboggan hill to accommodate winter tobogganing because as you can tell it’s 7 o’clock (now) and it’s pitch black.”
Items not in the plan
Community members gave feedback suggesting a running track at the park and to accommodate the request a circular path was incorporated.
“It’s not going to be any sort of formal running surface, it’s still going to be asphalt, but it can be metre marked to accommodate the need for someone who might be wanting to train so that they can number off the number of metres that it’s going to be,” Brule said, adding there is a track at the Marden facility.
Another item not included on the plan is designated natural areas.
“Rockmosa Park is meant to be an active space,” Brule said. “With the conservation authority within walking distance from the park we didn’t want to recreate natural areas.”
Budget
Each year council will review the capital budget and the scheduled phases of the Rockmosa master plan and evaluate whether it’s feasible.
“Nothing’s really written in stone, we need a concept to move forward to the next step and that’s basically what this is,” said councillor Mark Bouwmeester. “It’s not the detailed stage, so theoretically you can add things, move things, edit things until you get to the detail stage.”
Having the plans in place increases the township’s chances of qualifying for grants and other funding opportunities, Milne said.
“Without plans and documents in place it’s hard to prove to these funding approvals that you’re ready, that you have a plan in place, that you’ve engaged the community,” he said. “So there’s 12 projects presented tonight, maybe half of them get implemented, maybe all of them get implemented but if funding comes along, it potentially increases [the] chances of all 12 projects being funded as one package through an infrastructure funding program.”
